if you can lol. How does a 10 year old girl go from a BG of 170 with only 12 carbs for breakfast with a unit of insulin for the 12 carbs which is her exact ratio and end up over 300 3.5 hours later?? I thought it would be such a good day for her cause her numbers finally started to go down from the low to high 300's to high 100's. She picked a low carb breakfast well the milk was her only carbs but grr I dont get how her hormones can throw her off or make her jump up like that.
Could be a little dawn phenomenon in action...early morning hormones cause insulin resistance and increased BG. Different days can have different effects on the blood sugar due to morning hormones.
I always have to take a little extra insulin for breakfast because if I just take the amount my carb ratio says I end up high. It's weird, but I can't figure out any other reason than the hormones.
We are having the same problem. I think my daughter's honeymoon is ending. Her carb ratio and Lantus dose aren't working anymore.
The sliding scale seems okay still. We are afraid of over doing it and then sending her to school. She has been one unit per 30 grams from almost from the start.
Today 2 hours after breakfast she was a little over 200.
She is like this all day long until Dinner time. Drives me nuts but its only for a week out of the month or so. I am pretty sure its just hormones. I just expected that she would have a better number day since she started out so well. We just upped her levemir so its helped some but I guess we will have to up it a little more.
I'm 22 years old and this happened to me when I was about the same age. I started having my menstruation when I was 12 years old and a year before I even started I started experiencing HIGH blood sugars for a week during every month. I couldn't figure out what was wrong and neither could be doctors. So I started marking it on a calendar and come to find out when I started my menstruation it was around the same time that months before that I was having high blood sugars. So it could just be hormones, and the changes her body is going through. This is a critical time for most little girls and her blood sugar could be affected by it.
[quote user="Jessica Morris "]
I'm 22 years old and this happened to me when I was about the same age. I started having my menstruation when I was 12 years old and a year before I even started I started experiencing HIGH blood sugars for a week during every month. I couldn't figure out what was wrong and neither could be doctors. So I started marking it on a calendar and come to find out when I started my menstruation it was around the same time that months before that I was having high blood sugars. So it could just be hormones, and the changes her body is going through. This is a critical time for most little girls and her blood sugar could be affected by it.
[/quote]
Yeah we just saw a regular doc on Monday and he said he has never seen or heard of it being this extreme but I made a good case for it being hormonal. More so cause she seems like she follows my cycle which makes sense. I just want to bang my head against a wall cause it seems like no matter what I do its not enough. I know I cant control her body but as a mom I want to make it better and I cant.
Hey Jessica,
When I was around Riley's age my insulin needs went up a lot (like double what I take now) since I was still growing. I used a lot more insulin between the ages of 12 and 19. Also, I wasn't on the pump until this past June so I really did not have a whole lot of consistency like..ever loool.
Is she on the pump? I know you have probably been asked this TONS of times and I'm sure like me, you guys have insurance issues or perhaps its a personal decision for Riley. Plus, the pump is expensive (ended up costing me 1500 outa pocket ugh and I'm a poor college student). My numbers are always higher in the morning so I tune my basal from .50 to .55 from 9am-1pm. and then down to .50 the rest of the day. It might not sound like a lot but it is for me. Maybe try a different carb ratio for breakfast? Funny enough, I'm on the same ratio as her (1 unit for every 12) and sometimes its hard to get accuracy. Does she have different ratios throughout the day? That might help out a lot!! Also, I always have to have some form of protein the morning with my breakfast like a hardboiled egg or cheese or something to off shoot all the sugar we get from cereal and toast (Back in the day, like 300 years ago, breakfast was the most protein filled and the largest meal. Probably because people were slaving away on the farms during the day and needed the energy) My CDE recamended that for me. I know she had a low carb breakfast so I'm not sure if what I said even helped one bit lool. Sometimes our bodies just like to be mean to us sometimes. I get random high blood sugars occasionally and all I can do is bolus, drink some water and go for a walk.
Either way, good luck Jessica!
-Maressa
No she is not on the pump and she does not want one as of right now. I am more than ready for it but she isnt but its her body and I wont push her into it even if I think it will help her numbers so much. Its hard being a mom and wanting what I think is best for her but not pushing her into something she isnt ready for.
She normally doesnt have low carb for breakfast but had a egg 1 carb and a sausage patty which is 1 carb then the milk. She ends up high no matter what she eats during this time period. The rest of the month she might go over 200 but under 250 and comes down from it. I cant seem to get her down until dinner time and for the past two nights she has been on the lower side for her at bed time. I probably do need to change her morning ratios I round up as it is and it ends up being closer to 10 carbs for ever unit but still it does seem like enough. I have a hard time going lower than that cause she goes to school some days she moves more than others so I try to avoid lows. Guess its time to get over that again and just drop her when she gets these crazy hormone related highs.
As a growing kid her insulin needs might just be increasing. If you notice the morning high for several days in a row you may need to ask your doctor about taking a little extra fast acting in the morning.
I use a pump and have a higher basal rate in the morning, but I also take a few extra units (in addition to carb and correction needs) if I eat breakfast. That usually gives me decent numbers mid-morning. Diabetes definitely turns us into creative problem solvers, doesn't it? And it's a daily reminder that life is always changing. =)
Jessica
My daughter is 11, and I have noticed that right around "that time of the month" her numbers go all haywire. She also has been growing like a weed, and her morning numbers are all over the chart. Hannah's endo said that because sometimes she will wake up at 70 and sometimes in the 200's, they don't want to do any adjustment of her basal (she is on the Omnipod) because there are some nights where her body releases the growth hormone, and other nights it does not, and when her body releases that growth hormone, it causes her numbers to be on the higher end. She has grown almost 3 inches in the past 4 months. I can tell this growth spurt is finally starting to wrap up, because her numbers are starting to consistantly be in the lower range in the mornings again. However, she has always had a higher basal and I:C ratio in the mornings than the rest of the day.
Riley hasnt or doesnt grow at a rapid pace at all she grows very slowly. It has not even been a year yet and she is about the same size weight/height she was before she got sick. She lost 20ish lbefore she was dxed our scale said 10. Anyhow I adjusted her fast acting from 15 to 12 not to long ago and when she gets like this is closer to 10 for one unit.We started at 25 in March or April. It just doesnt seem like a 10 year old should need so much insulin. I know age doesnt have a lot to do with it but it does seem younger kids have so many more carbs per one unit and heck she has less per unit than a lot of people older than her.
I want to see how many carbs raises her how much. Not sure that makes sense but I read it some place before. To give so many carbs and see how much they go up from it with no insulin to figure out how much insulin is needed for either the correction or the ratio for carbs. I cant even remember what it was for. Anybody know what I am talking about?
[quote user="Jessica "]
I probably do need to change her morning ratios I round up as it is and it ends up being closer to 10 carbs for ever unit but still it does seem like enough. I have a hard time going lower than that cause she goes to school some days she moves more than others so I try to avoid lows. Guess its time to get over that again and just drop her when she gets these crazy hormone related highs.
[/quote]Jessica, Sarah isn't much older than Riley, but she's still in her honeymoon period. However, mornings are the time she always ends up high. About two months ago I adjusted her IC ratio for mornings from 1:25 to 1:15, then a week later to 1:10, which is where she's been ever since. Even so, she's still on a 1:25 for lunch and 1:20 for dinner. As long as she remembers to have a snack between meals, she's nearly always between 100-120 at each mealtime. Anyway, I know it seems weird that she needs more than double the insulin for breakfast, but that's been working for us for months.
Thanks Michelle. I will give it a try but I am not sure how its going to even work this morning. I tested her about half an hour ago and she was at 85. So I might need to bring her up first which will totally mess things up!
[quote user="Jessica "]
Thanks Michelle. I will give it a try but I am not sure how its going to even work this morning. I tested her about half an hour ago and she was at 85. So I might need to bring her up first which will totally mess things up!
[/quote]Ugh. I so know what you mean. I have had several of those moments this week, where I have to feed her before I feed her. Actually, that's one of the best things about the pump (which I know Riley doesn't want, but it really might help!) because if she's 85 at a meal, the pump will just reduce the amount of insulin to try to get her back to 130.
Even so, her numbers have fluctuated a lot this week, and for some reason she's stopped feeling her lows. The other night she went to bed at 99 (she'd just eaten a snack and wasn't even a little hungry), so I turned off her pump for four hours thinking that might help. I checked her a bit later and she was 68, made her eat a packet of crackers. I checked her again a bit later, and she was 44! She finally came up with some juice, but I asked her and she didn't ever feel low, which scares me. She dropped into the 70's a bunch of times this week and we only caught them because I had her checking frequently (because of the high activity levels) - but usually she feels like she needs to test in the 70's, so I don't know what's going on. I sure felt a lot more confident when she was right on top of feeling those lows coming on. Now I'm a bit paranoid!
Oh I know how very much a pump would help Ri. She does too. I explained it to her cause I knew and know all the doctors will bring it up to her. I didnt want her surprised by them talking about it and getting upset. She is the shiest kid and cries over so very little when it comes to other people talking to her. She doesnt feel lows anymore either or never really did actually. A couple of times she has asked me if she is low lol I can tell most of the time from her face. High she gets red, low she gets pale. So I really try to avoid them if she isnt going to be with me. They said she would be able to figure out the difference between a low and a high which she started to do then she just started to not feel the lows. Which happens to some too. We made the mistake of giving her something she wanted a solid food over juice once too and she did the same thing. I think its important to do that tho and let them make mistakes now while they are young so they know not to do it when alone and older. She know juice first and most of the time she doesnt need a snack after. A juice will bring her up and keep her up over night.