-
Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
-
Learn more about joining the Diabetes UK Support Forum team here: https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/volunteering-opportunities-why-dont-you-join-us.112862/
Hello Newbie
- Thread starter GemFI
- Start date
- Status
Hello, she is 4 years old nearly 5, she has been back in school for 4 weeks so diagnosed about 8/9 weeks ago. She has a sensor on her arm and the Libre app on the phone where we check her levels. She has insulin via injection everyday before lunch.
She copes with it so well and takes it all in her stride. Better than me 😛
I'm new to this too, and just want to make sure that I do everything right as her numbers seem all over the place this past week. She has mentioned that her nose and ear hurts so not sure if a cold will have an impact on her readings.
She copes with it so well and takes it all in her stride. Better than me 😛
I'm new to this too, and just want to make sure that I do everything right as her numbers seem all over the place this past week. She has mentioned that her nose and ear hurts so not sure if a cold will have an impact on her readings.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome from me too.
Really wonderful that you have joined the forum to learn more, so that you can support this little girl and great to hear how well she is coping so far. It is normal with newly diagnosed Type 1s for their levels to be haywire in the early months and children will be more so as trying to match small but growing bodies with insulin, especially when sometimes they will eat all their food and other days they don't can be really challenging, but add in a bug or virus and it can all go horribly silly. It is a case of you can only do the best you can do and just keep a close eye on levels which is so much easier now we have CGM but children have survived for decades without CGM so be reassured that you are now better placed than teachers and parents previously who only had finger pricks to check and before that believe it or not they had to boil up their urine with a reagent that changed colour and that gave you an idea of what their BG levels were 3 hours previous..... as you can imagine that was really challenging. 🙄.
I wondr if it might be useful for you to read about the limitations of Libre and other CGM, just so that you know when to trust it and when to double check with a finger prick.... assuming you have been trained to finger prick although it would be extremely sensible. Anyway, we have a threat which lists most of the limitations and quirks of Libre that we have devised within the forum and I will link it below. I think probably one of the main things to know is that lying on the sensor can give a false low and as a young child who is perhaps not feeling well sometimes, I guess she may perhaps go and lie down in a rest room (It's many decades since I was at school, but I am guessing there is some facility to facilitate this) so it's just possible that you might have this situation arise, but in general any low BG readings should be checked before treating unless the child is obviously hypo.
forum.diabetes.org.uk
I assume that the school have been provided with some sort of protocol for treating hypos and various other situations. Are you aware of that?
Really wonderful that you have joined the forum to learn more, so that you can support this little girl and great to hear how well she is coping so far. It is normal with newly diagnosed Type 1s for their levels to be haywire in the early months and children will be more so as trying to match small but growing bodies with insulin, especially when sometimes they will eat all their food and other days they don't can be really challenging, but add in a bug or virus and it can all go horribly silly. It is a case of you can only do the best you can do and just keep a close eye on levels which is so much easier now we have CGM but children have survived for decades without CGM so be reassured that you are now better placed than teachers and parents previously who only had finger pricks to check and before that believe it or not they had to boil up their urine with a reagent that changed colour and that gave you an idea of what their BG levels were 3 hours previous..... as you can imagine that was really challenging. 🙄.
I wondr if it might be useful for you to read about the limitations of Libre and other CGM, just so that you know when to trust it and when to double check with a finger prick.... assuming you have been trained to finger prick although it would be extremely sensible. Anyway, we have a threat which lists most of the limitations and quirks of Libre that we have devised within the forum and I will link it below. I think probably one of the main things to know is that lying on the sensor can give a false low and as a young child who is perhaps not feeling well sometimes, I guess she may perhaps go and lie down in a rest room (It's many decades since I was at school, but I am guessing there is some facility to facilitate this) so it's just possible that you might have this situation arise, but in general any low BG readings should be checked before treating unless the child is obviously hypo.
CGM limitations and precautions
Moderator Note: This helpful reply was copied from another thread as it details some of the commonly experienced limitations of continuous glucose sensors. My blood sugar has been in perfect range for days now, but although I haven't changed anything, I'm starting to get very short periods of...
forum.diabetes.org.uk
I assume that the school have been provided with some sort of protocol for treating hypos and various other situations. Are you aware of that?
SB2015
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Great that you have joined to find out more in order to help the child you are supporting in school and to read how she is taking it in her stride.
Whenever we get a cold our levels go a bit bonkers and become more difficult to manage, so it is not surprising that. Her levels may be a bit higher. Our levels do not stay constant however hard we try,there are so many factors that impact the glucose in us, especially how active we have been.
My main bit of advice will be to always have her hypo treatment readily available. Diabetes doesn’t always behave properly and we can get surprises.
Any questions that arise. Just ask. Nothing is considered silly on here.
Whenever we get a cold our levels go a bit bonkers and become more difficult to manage, so it is not surprising that. Her levels may be a bit higher. Our levels do not stay constant however hard we try,there are so many factors that impact the glucose in us, especially how active we have been.
My main bit of advice will be to always have her hypo treatment readily available. Diabetes doesn’t always behave properly and we can get surprises.
Any questions that arise. Just ask. Nothing is considered silly on here.
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Yes, colds can mess with blood sugar as can any illness. Often levels will go higher than normal but sometimes they can go low or swing from high to low. I second the advice not to over-rely on the Libre. They have their limitations and are not always accurate. If in any doubt, do a fingerprick test to check.
The biggest concern is hypos, especially where you have a young child with probably unpredictable levels of activity. Sometimes with young children the mealtime injection is given after the meal rather than before, as children can be unpredictable in what they’ll eat and also slow to recognise feeling unwell and that this might affect their appetite whereas an adult would realise and reduce their mealtime injection. Presumably you’ve been given guidance about what to do if she doesn’t eat all her food?
Have you had training from her diabetes team? Are other children and adults in the school aware of Type 1? I believe Diabetes U.K. do workshops in schools.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @GemFI
Have you found some of the resources that Diabetes UK have available?
www.diabetes.org.uk
You might also want to call the helpline team (Mon-Fri 9-6) to chat through any worries you have, and ask if they have any written materials that they could send you? The number is at the top of every forum page.
Many forum members and parents here also highly rate Ragnar Hanas’s book
Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People
And of course you can always ask forum members to share their personal experiences of any questions you have too.
Have you found some of the resources that Diabetes UK have available?
Looking after a child with diabetes in school
You might also want to call the helpline team (Mon-Fri 9-6) to chat through any worries you have, and ask if they have any written materials that they could send you? The number is at the top of every forum page.
Many forum members and parents here also highly rate Ragnar Hanas’s book
Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People
And of course you can always ask forum members to share their personal experiences of any questions you have too.
- Status