I'm mostly out for opinions... Someone I know has a 3 1/2 year old with T1D. She is currently on multiple daily injections, but Mom is finding it hard to control the blood sugars. She (Mom) is considering a pump for her daughter, but isn't sure that it's the right way to ge, given her age. Opinions? Comments?
Before you answer, please keep in mind that this is in Canada where the Omnipod is not available, nor is the Animas One-touch Ping (yet!) with the remote. CGMS are just starting to catch on, but are very expensive... Thanks for your input!
Truthfully i would think that being 3.5 years old is way to young to go on a pump. While I know that they have pediatric models out there, I would really think that having a child reach the age of knowing what is going on more would make more sense. While adjusting to a pump would be mentally easier the younger one is, I just think it is to young. Controlling diabetes is not the easiest thing and using a pump on one so young to control it could be easier, but with a kid running around with even the short tubing and everything else it just screams disaster to me.
I would wait until the kid is at least 6 or 7 personally before starting the pump, as they will at least know more about what is going on with what is attached to them.
My son, Leo, was diagnosed just this past December 2008. He has type 1 and has been on a pump for the last two months. He turns 3 in May. For us the pump has been a GODSEND. Though I will say that it is still very hard, it helps make managing it SO much easier. He has a Medtronic 522 and he wears it in a pump pack. We started him wearing the pack and then the pack and pump together before we actually started pumping. We keep the it locked out, so stray fingers won't cause any problems but he hasn't really tried to fool with it anyway. Leo is old enough to understand that we use the pump instead of shots (though sometimes still have to do an occassional shot) and he is very interested in keeping his pump working! I'd say that as a parent of a toddler with type 1, the benefits to us have been being able to allow him to eat with more flexibility. And also being allowed NOT to eat when he doesn't feel like it. We love being able to help prevent a low, by temp basaling, something that just cannot be done with injections. Like tonight at bedtime, he was within range, but on the lower end and he usually gets more basal until midnight. We were able to temp basal and reduce the amount of insulin. With injections we would have likely had to correct a low in the middle of the night with food. Or if he is particularly active, we use the temp basal feature. And anticipate using it more as the weather gets nicer and we spend more time outside playing. Also, Leo is getting such TINY doses of insulin, that the pump can do what we just cannot. When he needs a correction, it can give, .1 units, but with injections, our option was .5. So we've found that to correct with an injection, we often found that a correction caused a low just because we couldn't draw up such small doses.
I will say that right before he started pumping, I thought that I was close to getting comfortable with injections, but now that he has the pump, I couldn't imagine managing without it. It has allowed us more flexibility and allowed Leo to deal with his diagnosis a bit better. He does not like site changes, but that has gotten a lot easier. And when given the option of the pump or shots, Leo picks the pump. So for us being VERY new to diabetes, we are still struggling with EVERYTHING, but from what we have experienced, no question. The pump is staying. And if you ask Leo, he LOVES it too!
i think it would be fine. i know that with the minimed you cam lock the key pad. you could lock the keypad and not let her know how to unlock it and when a bolus or something is needed, unlock it give the bolus then lock it again. just in this first week of pumping, my blood sugar has improved so much. i went from a target range 4-8mmol/l to 5-6mmol/l and it has been really good. ive had 4 highs(one was caused by a problem with an infusion set and the others were from excercise)