Just curious -
How long did your child's honeymoon phase last? Kathy is still in hers and it's been 7 months. And how did you know when it was over? Her endo says it's a gradual thing and he's seen them last up to 3 years.
Wow...the 3 years thing seems long, I think. Our endo said she'd never heard of a 'confirmed' honeymoon of over a year. For our four year-old (and up to now) that was in a growing phase there were obviously lots of fluctuations in what was needed for insulin, and as the pancreas trickles out combined with the growing kid, the variations in physical activity and of course a picky eater, we were all over the map. There were a couple days where even a minute amount of insulin was sending him low and we thought he'd been gifted a miracle.
For us, though, we had an 'early' diagnosis and the honeymoon lasted just over three months.
I thought 3 years sounded very long too! Kathy takes small amounts of insulin right now, but we did have to bump up a bit on her intermediate dose. She takes Novolog to offset her breakfast and dinner (just .5 units per carb serving) combined with Humulin in the AM (1.5 units) and Lantus in the PM (1.5 units). She was taking so much more in the beginning. I just increased the Humulin from 1 to the 1.5 units this month. We'll see what her endo says as we have an appt on Tuesday next week. I keep track of her numbers and for this month at least she is pretty steady, just a few super-highs and lows. Her a1c last visit in September was 5.5 - he was real impressed with that!
Thanks for the info!
My son Jacob was diagnosed on Oct. 30, 2007, and is still in the honeymoon phase, so over a year now.
Hey Vicky,
What do you measure as a carb serving (how many grams)?
The first week we were home with our son, Jacob, my husband purchased an Escali Nutritional Scale, which we use religiously to measure carbs in his food. It comes with a book that has hundreds of codes for different foods, and so far, we've been able to measure just about everything very accurately. (We also use calorieking.com a lot as well.)
Best,
Carole
James - We count 15 grams as one carb serving. So if her meal has 45 grams of carbs total, that's 3 carb servings so she gets 1.5 units of Novlog.
I almost don't want the honeymoon to end because her doses are so small. And no doubt when it does end she'll have to have a third injection at lunchtime, I imagine. For now it's just breakfast and dinner.
We're on a sliding ratio...at breakfast he's at 8g CHO = serving and at supper 30g CHO = serving. At lunchtime, he has 45g CHO from his morning NPH and if he wants (or we're having) more we call 15g CHO a serving. Our insulin on ratio is Lispro.
Vicky,
Our daughter was diagnosed 4 years ago. There was never a clear cut change in insulin usage, so I can not say when she transitioned out of her honeymoon phase. In my mind I thought it would be obvious, but it was not the case for us.
JSJ
My son was diagnosed on Sept 20, 2007 at 2 1/2 yrs old. He is still honeymooning after 15 months. He was dx'd VERY early as well and is currently on 1 unit of lantus in the pm and his I:C ration is 1:35
Crystal
Mommy to Devin (3 yrs old) dx'd 9/20/07
Mommy to Gavin (3 yrs old) Non D
Mommy to Hannah (8 yrs old) Non D
New to this, how do you even know that your kid is in the honeymoon stage? Is it based on insulin amounts alone or do the number of times you have to inject daily matter to? They increased his breakfast intermediate insulin about a week after we were home from the hospital, but just decreased his dinner fast acting last week. I am kind of lost.
I was told at the hospital when we were first diagnosed about the honeymoon phase. I guess the body has insulin stored or something and even though the pancreas isn't producing anymore, there is enough in reserves that you don't need as much insulin until the reserves are gone. So right now, my daughter, for example, is using a pretty small amount of insulin, but she is very slowly needing more all the time. In the last couple of weeks we've had to just ever so slightly increase it. Her endo said at her last appt that it is probably ending, but it won't end all at once, it kind of tapers off.