I’m new to all this. Long story short my daughter is 5 years old and was diagnosed 5 months ago. She is a Dexcom G6 user, as of right now we give her insulin shots. The Dr asked at her last visit if we were Interested in the insulin pump. What is a good age to start an insulin pump? Is it better than injections? Torn on what to decide. Any help and advice is appreciated.
My son was 5 (a year ago) when he was diagnosed and 5 months after his diagnosis he was on an insulin pump. For him (us) it has been such a blessing. Being so little, it was hard for him to completely understand why he needed so many injections a day. The pump while hardly perfect, has far more pros than cons for him and our family. Yes, it’s a drag to have an infusion site, but he has told us that he rather have one needle every 2 days than 5-7 per day. You will also be please how much more control you have over his insulin. For example, if he’s going high or low you can adjust his basal rate and that can (at times) help prevent highs and lows from going out of control. Not to mention you may be able to sleep a bit more.
It sounds like you have a good start by having a CGM. (Personally, if my son could only have one, I would choose the CGM over the insulin pump, but gratefully, he can have both.) I also have spoken to long time T1D adults who like to change it up and spend some months or years pump free, so your child may decide down the road to change it up.
Good luck and remember you are NOT alone!
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Hi Dee @Dee314, I’m not qualified specifically to speak about pump use for children of such tender age - I began use of a pump when I was in my 60’s after using needle injections for 47 years. But, I can see that your daughter could use the reasoning that I used: only 130 +/- infusion sets per year instead of 2,200 injections.
Keep in mind, that technology, “artificial intelligence”, does not fully replace the human. In my opinion the pros of pump and/or CGM fat out-weigh the cons. Raquel @rockleddy offers much more concise and fitting advice than I could write.
My daughter is 2 1/2 she was diagnosed diabetic at 9 months shes been the dexcom since she was 11 months and just started the omnipod pump 2 weeks ago. I personally was really nervous at first about a machine doing my job of delivering her insulin but the thought of less pokes to her little body was awesome. So far I’ve come to really like it and she is a lot happier when I tell her its time for her medicine and theirs definitely more control over her highs and lows. I know that theirs all kinds of different pump choices out their but for us I think this one was the best.