Sure it has been on here before, but here goes. How do any of the parents out there get through this without completely losing it after a while? Colby my four year-old son was diagnosed December 2008 and at last clinic appt. it was suggested to test more frequently at night. So my boyfriend and I decided to just do it every night since Colby had recently seized at night and been super low in the morning. We switch off...which is wonderful.
Colby is low (endo does not want him lower than 120 during the night) more often than not, so 1am test-low and treat, 1:20 retest-usually ok, 3:30am test again-usually ok. Just when I feel like I am used to it, I have an angry period...where I just want it all to stop, for it to just go away completely. The most frustrating part is that we follow the snack instructions for bedtime to a 'T' and he is on Lantus. I have an email in to our endo, but just wanted to know how other parents deal with this?
My son Michael is 14 and was recently dxd on June 22, 2009. I am finding this to be my biggest worry at the moment. My husband and I have been switching off the last week as I was becoming totally stressed! It is an absolutely terrible feeling to be in constant fear of lows in the nighttime. I wish I can tell you something to make it better. I just try to do what I know I must do to keep him safe.....
My son is 12 and was dxd Nov. 2005, but I still struggle with the night-time lows. A fairly comfortable pattern for us is if he is low before bed, we treat, he takes an extra carb, and then I recheck him in the night. If his bedtime check is normal, and he hasn't had a late practice (baseball, football, etc.), then I don't check him in the night. This seems to be working okay for us. I recently went to a diabetes expo and it was a mixed bag. About half of the parents in my group checked regularly in the night and about half checked only if they had lows before bed. Because you are still so early in your dxd, you will obviously want to follow your endo's orders on this but it does get easier. Hang in there!
My son is four and was diagnosed in Dec. 08 as well. We test at midnight and 3 a.m. My husband does the midnight and I do the 3 a.m check. Although, I usually wake up to see what his number was at midnight. We typically have a low during the night if he has been particularly active during the day such as swimming or amusement park. I used to have real trouble getting back to sleep after checking him and that made for very long nights and hard day the following day. That only happens occasionally now.
Wish I had better advise on how to deal. Hang in there!
My son was dx 2 1/2 years ago and we still check 2 times a night. It seems to have gotten easier for me over the years, but there are days that I am really exhausted! I just can't run the risk of him going low during the night, and I can't stand the thought that if he is high he will be high all night without a correction bolus.
We're still pretty new to this, and so I'm still learning. But, how are kids still having over-night lows after such a long time? Is this usual? Is this just an individualized thing? We haven't had to do nighttime testing since the first week after switching to a Humalog/Lantus program. Now that he's settled into stable numbers in his current insulin/carb ratios (different throughout the day), I'm not even really worrying about it any more. For those suffering through nighttime lows, what are your kids' bedtime insulin/carb ratios? Or, is there one fixed ratio for every meal?
Mo, I am still fairly new to this also. Lows/Highs our endo pretty much told me are out of my hands...even under the best of control every type one can still have the extremes. I just accept that, although my ex-husband seems to think otherwise. I think it can be individual also, depending on too many factors to count, but just to name a few; the child's activity level, stress/excitement, too much insulin, types of carbs eaten and with my son, he is still in his honeymoon phase so his pancreas is still making a little bit of insulin. We are on an insulin sliding scale so no insulin to carb ratio yet which I believe is due to his age and not wanting to have to inject as many times a day as we would be with the ratio. Colby's bedtime numbers fluctuate, but if below 120 we give a 15 gram carb snack, if below 100 we give a 30 gram carb snack and still have some overnight lows. He is on a fixed amount of carbs for each meal and snack with the insulin sliding scale to match. Our endo adjusts his insulin amounts every few months and just reduced his Lantus which is already helping with his overnight lows. So we'll see, thanks to all for your responses!
So, I just want to be sure I understand the program Colby is on. He's on a fixed amount of insulin with a sliding scale correction, and a fixed-carb meal plan? Is that right? This sounds like the R/N insulin program the hosptial initially put William on. Once we got in to a pediatric endo, he was switched to a far more flexible program and his BS settled in pretty quickly. As our dr told us, even though the new program requires more shots and it's a bit more complicated in the beginning, the more flexible program is sooo much better for us.
So, I'm wondering other parents who have to do night-time testing are also on a fixed program?
My son is not on a fixed program. He is on a carb ratio for his novalog and also does Lantus once a day. We did have a short window of time when he needed no lantus and we were able to stop the 3 a.m. check. I will say though that I still checked at least once a week at 3 a.m. just to be sure.
I am so glad to hear that I am not the only one struggling with this. As a single parent, it is killing me to get up at 3am for the check because whether it is good or bad I am stressed out and can't go back to sleep. My son is on a flexible dosing regimen and lantus at night but his numbers have been hitting low quite often. I think the stress of going back to school and his hormones are really wreaking havoc on his numbers. I am a nervous wreck when i leave the house for work that he is going to bottom out and i will be too far away to do much about it, other than call 911. Hopefully, as time goes on I will be better able to cope with this.
My endo has decided to keep Colby on the less flexible plan I guess you could say...I think she wants to stretch it out as long as possible until we switch to the pump. Just not real sure, but ok with it for now.
Jennifer, has your endo adjusted your sons Lantus dose because that has helped my son. I was a single mom from 3-weeks until about 3 and a half, basically when he was diagnosed...I now have a boyfriend who helps me out with him and his diabetes care so much. But I understand the whole single mom side of things just pre-diabetes. It is very hard but you add that in and I cannot imagine. We just do it as moms (and dads too). I wish there was more I could say/do since you are having an even tougher time than me. Just hang in there and remember that you are your sons shining star!
The endo actually increased the lantus dose because Drew's sugar was running high (200s)....now we are experiencing the lows but i think it has to do more with him not eating enough carbs to support the increase in Lantus and the stress of starting back to school soon. He has a very different appetite than any other teenager i know...he is the only one that doesn't eat like a horse! So sometimes he is very hungry and he pigs out on the noncarb stuff (meat, seafood, chicken) then he isn't hungry enough to eat the starches that i made.....the next night he won't be hungry at all and i am forcing him to eat something. He has been like this since he was a baby. For a while i thought it was acid reflux, but i think it is just that his stomach is more sensitive to his moods? Anyway, hopefully we can find the right balance of carbs/noncarbs for meals that will satisfy him and the Lantus!
My 5 year was diagnosed November 28, 2008 (just shy of his 5th birthday). He was so up and down with his numbers (especially at night, often waking up soaked!) his endocrinologist thought the One Touch Ping insulin pump would be the way to go because it can deliver smaller doses than most pumps (was my understanding). He was setup on it in May 2009. He doesn't have to have the Lantus since switching to the pump because he gets small doses throughout the day, in addition to doses for his meals and snacks. I love it. It's so much easier. HOWEVER, they encourage us to do nighttime checks, i.e. 11pm, 2am, 6am to be sure he's not getting too low during the time it takes them to figure meter settings. It's hard sometimes. I can stay up until 11pm, but I don't feel like I get enough sleep anymore because I'm never getting enough hours in a row. I fall asleep in the afternoon many days.
Our daughter was diagnosed at 20 months old and is now almost 5, and we still check her every night. I don't think we could sleep if we didn't. It's exhausting, but it's just part of life for us now. However, since she got an insulin pump at age 3, she has had almost no lows at night. We really check her only once more for peace of mind than anything. I would recommend looking into a pump.
We did night time checks for a (very) short while after my son was diagnosed and then again after he got his pump... After he was regulated on his pump we have stopped doing middle of the night checks, he doesn't have issues with night time lows, I check him at bedtime, and put him to bed and trust that he will be okay till morning. I feel that if I am always hoovering over him and always poking his fingers he is going to always thing that his diabetes is something to be afraid of and that he too should be afraid of ("after all mom sure acts scared to death of me") Do I worry and stress over him? ABSOLUTELY!! And I don't think I will ever stop doing that, I just can't always be running after him, or risk waking him up sticking him checking his sugar.
Just my take, this is how it works for me and my family...
Now Thomas has NEVER had a seizure over night or done anything really crazy, it would be a totally different story if that were the case!!