Newly Diagnosed 19 month old

Yelena - posted on 09/11/2009

that is SO young the poor thing. My husband, dad, and step-son have diabetes, also I am a nurse. My honest advice is get used to it. About controlling your sugars not letting them control you is BS. It's such a complex disease and childern are changing and growing so fast that nothing is the same for 2 seconds in a row. My step-son runs real high when he's with us cause he's stressed. It's not all bad stress, we do alot as a family and he's not used to doing anything at his moms. It's just a matter of testing alot to make the changes needed. But everyone I have can tell me when they're low, it's gotta be SO scarey with a baby. I watched a show about a 3 year old in England, and they test her every hour since she's been diagnosed. We test Mason alot, but his mom tells us not to he only needs it at meals, she says the DR told her to tell us that, but at the last endo. Dr apt she told us we're right on and test whenever we feel. She just doesn't want to pay for the strips

Kendra - posted on 08/07/2009

Hi Holly,
It's rough with young one's...my daughter was 14 months old when diagnosed. I remember calling our endo one day in tears because I just didn't understand why things were fine one day and out of control the next. The first thing she told me was that this is why it is a disease - it is not going to be perfect (or near perfect) all of the time. She gave me general guidance, but the point that she really drove home was that we do the very best that we can to MANAGE diabetes, but we cannot completely CONTROL it without making ourselves and our kids miserable. Little things like being tired, cranky, scared, excited will all affect blood sugar. Is Austin on shots or on a pump?

Holly - posted on 06/14/2009

Thank you for all of your advice!!!!!! I see the endo June the 25th so maybe they can explain things a little better to me I didn't get much training the 5 days I was in the hospital b/c it was Derby weekend in Kentucky and everyone was off. Right now Austin is on NovolinR and NovolinNPH. He recieves 1 unit regular and 2.5 nph in the morning and then before dinner he recieves 1unit NPH. I don't know how to change it by myself just yet the endo nurse said eventually I would do it but right now I'm not comfortable w/ it. The good thing about Austin is I can usually tell when he is getting low he acts sleepy and cranky but doesn't want to sleep. I am currently trying to count carbs he get 30-45grams breakfast, 15grams snack, 30-45grams lunch, free snack, 30-45grams dinner. It seems to work pretty well inless he refuses to eat. Thats usually when he gets low is when I can't get enough carbs into him. Trying to make Austin eat when he doesn't want to is like bullriding LOL. Again thank ya'll for your advice.

User - posted on 06/14/2009

Hi Hollly, my name is Christina and I am a good friend of Julia's (she replied earlier), I've known Julia for over 13 years and after we both moved away from each other we both end up with a kiddos with diabetes. Actually I have two kiddos with Type 1. My youngest was diagnosed was he was nearly 3 and is 5 now. My oldest was diagnosed this last April and she is 9. Her numbers are surprisingly good, she uses the novalog/lantis combination. She honeymooned for a bit the last two weeks so I tweaked her ratios myself without contacting the endo - I have been doing this for over 2 and a half years. My youngest is on the Animas pump and his numbers vary a great deal more that my older child. I think it is because as a pre-schooler he has different growth patterns plus as a 5 year old he want's to eat and drink constantly and thus seems to have a non-stop intake of carbs. The pump makes it very easy to let him eat and drink carbs as frequently as he wants since I can dose him repeatadly without injections. My daughter chooses to follow the (breakfast, no-carb snack, lunch, no-carb snack, dinner, no-carb snack) diet so that she can stick to only 4 shots a day. I think that is the biggest reason her numbers are more under control.

Another thing that makes numbers act funny is physical activity -

for example my daughter and I ran a 4K yesturday then she also rana 2K that same day - during the 4 hours that we were at the events she consumed over 110 carbs and I did not give her a single shot becuase she was running in the low 100's without fast acting insulin because of all the activity. Then last night she still ran low because her body was still burning carbs - much like our bodies do when we do extensive arobic training and weight training during the day - our bodies actually continue to burn calories throughout the day.

consider increasing the ratios on days with little activity and decreasing the ratios on days with high physical activity.

for example - my daughters ratio on an average day is 1unit for every 20grams, on a day that she will likely be less active than normal I increase the ratio to 1 unit for every 15 grams, on a day with a lot of physical activity I decrease it to 1 unit for every 25 or even 30 grams depending on the activity. (the race day was a really special case because she ran over 4 miles that day - which was really unusual)

Talk to your son's endo about changing the ratio based on physical activity.

BTW - the type of food matters greatly as well - i.e. breakfast cereals, high fat pasta, and pizza will likely cause a spike in BG. If your kiddo plans to eat high fat carbs such as alfrado, mexican, and pizza you might consider dividing his normal dose into two shots. One immidiatly following the meal then another 30-45 min later. For example if he would require 2 units you could give 1 unit when he ate then another unit 45 minutes later - that will help reduce the spike. My son uses the pump and the pump is great for extended/combo bolusing.

Good luck with all.

You are never alone.

Julia - posted on 06/10/2009

My daughter was diagnosed at 3 1/2 years old. It's been 6 months now, and we STILL have trouble keeping her in her range. The first few months she was super low all of the time, the last few months, she's stayed pretty high. It's really aggravating not knowing exactly what's going in her body, and why you can't keep the numbers where they should be.

We've taken to testing her almost hourly. It's extreme, but I feel like I need to know where she's at at all times, you know?

My daughter takes Novalog and Lantus. The doctors have had to tweak her numbers and doses every time we've gone in for the appts, they're still trying to get things figured out too.

I hope that you guys can get Austin's numbers in check, but if it takes a while, just know you're not the only ones waiting for things to even out.

Good luck.