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Hypo.

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Siannie 49

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Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
My son had his usual Sunday roast lunch today. He was 5.5 before lunch. Then had a hypo of 3.7 two hours later. Where did I go wrong doing something?? Why would a hypo happen after lunch . Also would the tinned spaghetti shapes / hoops cause spikes in the blood???
 
Things like spaghetti or baked beans in tomato sauce, have carbs in both the spag & beans AND the tomato sauce. Serve em on toast and it's just a complete carb fest and very little else.

Sunday lunch in the majority of homes includes roast potatoes, so although the spuds have the same amount of carbs as when cooked any other way - the fat used to cook them slows the absorption of the carbs in them down, quite a lot. Hence if the fast acting insulin gets there quicker than the carbs do - hypo ensues. All the spuds roasted and none boiled is NOT a good idea generally.

May be necessary to split the bolus for such a meal, but it depends on the persons own metabolism as to how much upfront, how much later, and timing required. To begin with he could try having less spud and more other veg - or jab halfway through eating it, or even after eating.
 
Generally novorapid peaks about an hour after injecting but it’s still in the system for another couple of hours. It’s possible that there was a mismatch between carb counting and insulin dose or he’s absorbed some part of the meal at a different speed of the insulin. Or he was dropping before the meal and the carbs in the meal didn’t balance out the drop. Or he was more active today (or yesterday) and so his insulin needs are different today. Or the wind was blowing in the wrong direction. Some days it just doesn’t work. The aim with managing his diabetes is to get in target as much as you can but it’s not unusual for hypos to happen and actually if the management is good it’s more likely than if he’s constantly running above target. 3.7 is a manageable hypo and nothing to be too worried about. Did he feel it? If he’s hypo aware that’s really good. it’s good for him to learn his hypo signs and for you to be able to spot them too.
 
No he didn't feel like he was having a hypo this time. Although it was only slightly low. Should he eat a low carb under 10g between meals to keep his levels up. What do u suggest to eat. I'm a newbie mum, dealing with this for her son. Heads all over the place at the mo. Scared to do something wrong.
 
If he’s low and needs to eat a small amount of carbs to bring him up a little, then he should do so @Siannie 49 The basic aim is to keep his blood sugar in range, and sometimes that can mean topping up with a few carbs. It’s not a failure on your part, just how it is.

Try the same lunch again with slightly less insulin or slightly more carbs.
 
Sorry to hear about your worries @Siannie 49. Hypos are just one of those things that goes along with T1, and 3.8 wasn’t a bad one. Your son may not have picked up on this one if it was a gentle descent, which wouldn’t surprise me if he has just had a meal.

As others have said the fat content does slow the release of glucose, so it can be useful to split the Bolus so some is given with the meal and some afterwards. There is no set rule about the timing, and it is very much a thing of Trial and improvement.

You are already doing brilliantly and it is no way your fault when things go wrong. Diabetes just does not always behave and as @Thebearcametoo pointed out there are so many variable that we are juggling that it is almost impossible to get it right all the time. We all do the best we can at any time.

Keep in touch and keep asking questions. We are happy to help with all that there is to learn.
 
I would only give a snack if a) he’s hungry or b) you think he might be hypo. Test and give appropriate insulin if needed. As he gets older he’ll probably be able to judge when he can get away with a 10 carb snack without insulin but in these early days it’s good to have the data and test if you can.
 
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