Massive spikes after meals

[Shivles]

Why is the DSN unconcerned that LO can shoot up to 15+mmol after a meal as long as it comes down before the next meal? Surely all these short high readings are going to add up?

 

[Sally71]

Hmmm, well it's not ideal, but it's being high for long periods that cause all the major damage. And it's pretty much impossible to get perfect numbers all the time. But if you are worried you could try doing your little one's injection earlier, say 15-20 mins before eating, to give the insulin time to get working before she eats, this might reduce the size of the spike. Finding the ideal delay will take some experimentation however!

 

[Shivles]

Hmmm, well it's not ideal, but it's being high for long periods that cause all the major damage. And it's pretty much impossible to get perfect numbers all the time. But if you are worried you could try doing your little one's injection earlier, say 15-20 mins before eating, to give the insulin time to get working before she eats, this might reduce the size of the spike. Finding the ideal delay will take some experimentation however!

I did her insulin 30 minutes before her breakfast, she was refusing it at first and only started to eat when she hit 3.5 and she still went up to 14 😱

Surely it's still going to affect her if a third of the day at least she's over 9 because she's spikes so much?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I did her insulin 30 minutes before her breakfast, she was refusing it at first and only started to eat when she hit 3.5 and she still went up to 14 😱

Surely it's still going to affect her if a third of the day at least she's over 9 because she's spikes so much?

If I was getting that I would want to make sure that it was a food I was only eating occasionally, not every day. Sending yourself hypo and then up to 14 is no good for you at all. Repeated hypos like that could really dent your warning signs after a while. Of course some of the rise might have been the liver kicking off because of the low BG which can happen, but can't be relied upon.

Is it breakfast cereal by any chance? I had all sorts of bother with cereals and gave them up in the end. Some people still manage OK with them though, so it's trial and error. It can also be pretty illogical (Weetabix may hit the bloodstream FAR faster than Frosties for example) so you really just have to put some practice in and see what works for you.

 

[Shivles]

She's on toast for breakfast which is better than the wheatbix (had to stop those because of readings above 20)

It's the same ever single meal though, unless I manage to sneak her a low carb meal, which no one else sees as a solution :/

 

[shirley]

My son always struggled the most with numbers after breakfast whatever the timing of his insulin. We now avoid cereals completely but he does have bread sometimes but always Bergen or something from Sainsbury called Liv lo which have far less carbs but are pretty tasty. Another alternative from Lidl is a high protein roll which is also very low carb and very tasty when toasted.

 

[Radders]

I battle spikes too. As well as pre-dosing, the things which have had a positive effect for me are:
1 Exercise after meals: easy for me at breakfast as I either cycle to work or walk a mile to the bus stop. On days when I don't do this I have to do number 4 below to prevent a big spike.
2 Add fat to the meal: I do this by adding ground flax seed at breakfast, not sure a toddler will swallow that so maybe cream? Takes me back to my childhood when my Dad used to tell us off if we didn't shake the milk bottle and got all the cream!
3 Less, slower acting carbs: High protein Weetabix has a bit less than the Normal ones, and I only have one, with low GI Lizi's granola to top it up, and replaced milk with soya milk (unsweetened) so my breakfast is 25g carbs.
4 Deliberately taking more insulin than the breakfast warrants, then topping up later with a snack to spread the impact of the carbs.

Does your little one suffer dawn phenomenon? If so this could be contributing to the spike - could a basal adjustment help, maybe?

Just some ideas that I have tried, I hope you can work out your own successful strategies.

Oh, I'm also on Apidra, which is I think one of the faster insulins.

 

[SB2015]

Like Radders I have used timings of insulin, reduced my carbs and done some sort of activity for at least 15 min after any meal. That brought the spikes down. I too was very concerned that although I was back on target before the next meal, I was spiking after each one and not at all happy. One DSN simply told me not to test. The other worked with me to look at strategies to reduce the spikes.