First I would like to thank all of you who welcomed on joining this site. My daughter, age 6, was recently diagnosed with type 1. Its only be a 2 weeks so we have not figured much out yet. I wanted to ask 2 questions.
1. My daughter was on Lantus but every shot burned her to the point where a few really made her lose her breadth. So I asked doctor to switch us over to Levemir. Tonight was the first dose and it did not burn. Is it safe to say Levemir will not burn? its hard enough giving my girl 4 shots a day let alone a very painful one every night.
2. We have been experiencing some sever lows all of a sudden. (60 down to 40) These happen thru out the day. Any advice. We are starting to test like crazy. Right now we are suppose to give her 1 unit per 15 carbs and we are still correcting if her blood sugar is over 150. Will the correction be continuous the rest of her life?
I know that Lantus is acidic or something. Doesn’t bother me but some people complain of burning when injecting.
Why the lows? Her carb to insulin ration may not be right. Or correcting any BG over 150 (which isn’t all that high in a 6 year old) could be causing the sudden lows. These are just ideas you could run by her doctor.
And yes, she will need boluses and corrections the rest of her life.
The up side is that many people on this site are on pumps, including young children. Sounds like your daughter would benefit from that.
I’ve never been on Lantus, because it came out later, around the time I ended up on my pump. My insulin stings at some sites and not others. It used to really burn when I’d be injecting it cold from the fridge. I don’t know… I just learned to deal with it. Sorry, not much help there.
The lows could be caused by a lot of things. It could be the carb ratio is off. It could also be that your daughter’s pancreas is still producing a bit of insulin and is just causing a somewhat of a rollercoaster ride with her blood sugars. It could also be exercise and about ten billion other things… If you’re logging the numbers though, your doctor or diabetes educator should be able to look at it and help you figure out what’s going on.
And, yeah, the corrections continue… and so do the adjustments. It’s not like some other illnesses where they just figure out a dose and you’re on that dose forever. It changes with a lot of things-- exercise, weight, food intake, etc.
Sorry you got stuck with this. I hope things even out a bit soon for you and your daughter.
Yep, Levemir doesn’t sting. Lantus is acidic. Another advantage of Levemir is that it doesn’t expire as quickly. As Lantus approaches the 28th day it starts losing potency. I use Levemir for 6-8 weeks. I also found Levemir to be more stable because I had lows on Lantus.
It takes a while to get doses right & it’s something that changes frequently, unfortunately. We’re all constantly tweaking our doses, more so with a growing child. Typical to have different ratios for different meals. Most are most carb sensitive/insulin resistant in the morning, so the ratio is smaller. Afternoon is usually when people are most active (though a 6 year old is always active!) & their insulin:carb ratio is larger.
Endos start patients on a 1:15 ratio & adjust slowly from there. Keeping logs of her doses, reading & meals will help her doctor fine tune.
maybe it’s the honey moon stage like after your diagnosed your body starts producing some insulin when i was first diagnosed same thing happened to me we like lowered my insulin amounts. my honeymoon stage went on for like 3 years
If your daughter was just dx’d, she may be entering a honeymoon period, during which less insulin will be needed. Her residual beta cells are probably kicking in. You will have to be able to adjust the insulin downwards, basal, as well as bolus. Do you fax your numbers to your Pedi Endo every day or every few days? This is what we did in the beginning. The Nurse CDE would adjust the insulin before we were trained to do so. Yes, you will be adjusting insulin almost every month as she is a growing child. The adjustments are constant. Not sure how often adults have to adjust. After a while, you will know her patterns and be more knowledgeable than the endo in your adjustments. I have heard Levimir does not sting as much; I am glad your daughter is having good luck with the Levimir. If your daughter keeps dropping and dropping throughout the day and night, it is her basals that need to be decreased. Often the bolus insulin needs to be adjusted downwards as well. I would call the Pedi endo to ask him how much to decrease the Levimir. P.S. You could check out insulin pumps as this may make it easier to do the frequent adjustments necessary for children. Without too many shots. Best thing we ever did.
Get a diabetes diary (logbook) and record blood glucose levels, carbs and foods eaten, and amount of insulin dosed. This will allow you to spot trends that attribute to hypoglycemia. Attend a diabetes education class and learn all you can about the diabetes.
Welcome! I am on a pump now, but I have to say that when I was on Lantus I frequently had severe drops and they were often out of the blue. Just walking from my house through to my neighborhood park (10 houses away) would make me drop. Since being on the pump it’s been much better. Hopefully switching to Levemir will help.
The only thing I will say is that she will not be correcting and bolusing her whole life, just until there is a CURE!
I use levemir for my basal. It does not sting. You may actually find that you need to dose the levermir twice a day. Upon waking and at bedtime, to give a flatter profile. It may not be the same dose morning and evening. For example; I use 20 units at night time and 15 in the morning.
With her blood sugars coming down with the insulin, her remaining beta cells in her pancreas may have some type of recovery… this is what people have mentioned as honeymoon. By keeping good blood sugar control, then these cells may last quite a while… Insulin doses may be reduced quite substantially. There is an online facebook group called type1grit. They have many kids doing great and achieving non-diabetic blood sugar levels.
This post is over 5 years old, peeps! While the topic itself may still be useful, I’m sure the OP knows the answers to her original questions plus a whole lot more since her not-as-little girl was diagnosed 5+ years ago…
