Injecting Themselves

[MeanMom]

Another thread has been talking about where to inject a very small child, and I have a related problem - Kis 11 and has injected herself from dx - she let me do it once in the hospital and has never let her dad. I am concerned that she will get those fatty lumps under the skin we have been warned about as she mainly injects into her arms, rarely her legs and never any other place. Asked Dsn about this and she told me to bribe her to do it, but Ks much too strong willed to be bribed to do something. I think the problem with her legs is technique as she was skin and bone when dx, but has now put on weight - what is the correct technique for thighs?
Has anyone any experience of lipohypertrophies (looked it up😉) and is it that bad really?

 

[Monica]

How long are her needles? If they are 6mm or smaller, she can inject into her thigh without pinching them. If longer, then she'll have to pinch her leg lightly, so that the needle only goes into the fatty part and not the muscle.
Also rotate around the leg. Put her hand sideways from her knee and what she covers with her hand is out of bounds for injection, the same from her hip downwards. Also don't inject on the inside of the thigh, best is from the top outwards. Does that make sense????

 

[shiv]

Monica - interesting, I was always told only to inject into the sides of the thighs, not the top, as the fat is on the side. I have been told by others that this is twoddle, but years of routine has left me struggling to change.

I have quite bad lipohypertrophy (I can never spell it either!) as I didn't rotate my sites when I was younger. It's left me with large, raised areas on the sides of both my thighs which when covered aren't all that noticeable but when wearing anything tight or revealing eg swim shorts, I get quite self concious of them. To get to where they are now, I basically injected into the same patch for 10 years.

Despite constant rotation I am finding I am also getting it around my midriff where I inject. I have been told that the amount I get is not normal and I am prone to it, so I doubt if she got it it would be like mine.

I would be happy to (privately) send some photos of the areas that are affected if you want me to? It might be a motivation for her to make sure she rotates.

 

[Gemma444]

Hya

Has your daughter said why she doesnt want to rotate injection sites. jack will inject into the side of his thighs, I inject in the bottom but would say your daughter is too old to let her mum do that haha. He has also done the odd one into his belly but only the odd one but he doesnt have enough fat on his tummy yet so dont really use his tummy. What size needles do you use, we use 6mm but the dsn is sending us some 4mm needles to use as jack is still quite slim.

Gem

 

[Monica]

shiv - yes, I couldn't really explain properly, but that's roughly what I meant, at the top, but slightly to the outside and the side of the leg. Shame you can't draw on here. I'd say "draw" a line down the middle of the leg and anything on the outer side is OK. I hope that's a better explanation 😉