So my son has a late summer b-day (just turned 5) and I have decided to wait 1 more year til he starts kindergarden. There are multiple reasons for this one very high on the list is his D! There is only 1 public school nurse that has to travel to all of the county’s public grade schools (I think about 6-7) so I want to give him time to be able to take his care into his own hands. As of right now he hasn’t tryed a CGM, I have heard good and bad about them… I would like to hear what age you started your child on a CGM and the pro’s and con’s! (i am considering getting him on one before he starts public school)
My son just turned 4 and has an Animas pump with no CGM. My friend’s girl is 4.5 with Medtronic WITH a CGM. She says it is useful for seeing trends but not accurate blood glucose readings as the interstitial fluid is mixed into the blood. She only uses the CGM on sick days however she is going to be using the CGM this September when her daughter goes to Kindergarten because she knows her daughter will be safer with it. Then in a few months she will reassess the situation to see if the CGM needs to be continued or if the teachers are more comfortable telling signs of hypoglycemia.
She doesn’t like to use the CGM because it leaves a mark/scar on the skin as the guage is quite huge. I actually am not buying the CGM for that reason.
My daughter just started on the Dexcom CGM. She is 2 years old. We are new to it so I’m not the most experienced person but I can tell you that we went with the Dexcom because of the much smaller gauge and the long-lasting sensors. The gauge on the Dex is even smaller than our infusion set for the pump. She didn’t even flinch when I inserted it and said it didn’t hurt at all.
I can also tell you that it will not replace finger sticks but the trending information is excellent. We are now catching lows and highs that are just getting started, which is very valuable to me. Feel free to message me with any questions.
thanks for the heads up about the gauge… since he has a revel medtronic pump I would be looking into the medtronic CGM so they could talk to eachother
on average, how many times a day do you do the finger stick? What pump do you use?
Prior to this we were testing about every 2 hours during the day and we are still testing about that much. I think over time as we get used to the Dex, we will not have to test as often - more like only for bolusing and verifying lows and highs. We pump with the Animas Ping.
David uses a Mimimed pump as well and we did try the CGM when he was about 15, he is now 17, but he found it frustrating with the frequent alarms. It was useful as there were concerns about his highs/lows throughout any given day and for the short time that he wore it (24 hours) it actually showed that he was doing much better than the random finger pokes implied. Costly to buy the transmitter though, and then the sensors, to have them all expire over a short period of time. About 3 months for the sensors and just short of two years for the transmitter.
We did considered purchasing again when David started distance running in personal fitness class at school, but decided not to on learning that in most instances the feedback is too far behind, leaving the fingerpoke as the only reliable method to monitoring his BG’s in this sort of sport. We also considered purchasing replacements for use a week out of every three months in preparation for the endo visit to fine tune basals, but David really was not impressed by the CGM. It is a fairly large guage and he has done so well just upping his testing to a minimum 8 fingerpokes a day that we decided not to push it.
If your diabetes clinic can give you access, without actually commiting your dollars, you might try one on yourself before trying it on a 5 year old. Our CDE is not diabetic but wore a pump with saline and CGM as part of her training to become a pump trainer herself.
Cheryl
We love the Dexcom and I can’t imagine going back to not having it. My son started on it this past summer at the age of 9. The longest we’ve been able to use the same sensor was 2 1/2 weeks, and it’s extremely accurate. We also picked it because of the size of the needle. We weren’t considering the MM though since my son’s on the Omnipod. I have three adult friends who all pump MM and they all wear the Dexcom because they were unhappy with the MM. My son’s psychologist also wears a MM pump and didn’t like the CGM. Unfortunately those four people were enough to make me not even consider the MM although I’ve heard of some people online that do like it for their kids.
My son (14) was diagnosed 9 months ago. We do not use the pump (he tried the omnipod but didn’t want anything attached to him - it’s the age) and we have not considered the CGM. He tests about 6 times a day and takes 6 shots including lantus. Hopefully, he will try the pump again and possibly the GCM but it’s not a battle we want to fight now. He just started high school and has a lot to adjust to. He does well with shots and doesn’t mind checking. It’s such a different situation when a teen is diagnosed vs. a younger child. Harder in some ways and easier in others…
My son is 5 and has been using a Dexcom since he was 2. It is a lifesaver, literally (the low alarm has waken us to potential serious situations more than once at night). My stress level noticably increases when he doesn’t have it on (which is almost never). I have come to learn when it is accurate and when it is not; it does have its quirks. So I test more when it’s not, but sometimes I’ll go much of the day without finger pricking if he’s doing fine. (if he has symptoms of lows, or if we correct, etc etc we do test, and it needs calibration every 12 hours as well). On the other hand, I did test every couple hours as usual when we first got the dexcom, and a long time afterwards, before I become comfortable enough to do this.
His A1C is down below 7% now, and he’s never had a serious low. (He’s also not in school yet). I would think it would help with school, although the danger is that you believe the numbers when it’s not accurate (it can be wildly inaccurate, at times). The nurse would need training on it. Knowing the trends (whether he’s going up or down) is really helpful, even if the number is not exactly right.
Since the dexcom is not attached to his pump (like the minimed is), (he has an animus pump), I can keep it next to my bed in another room at night. To see how he’s doing at night, I can just press a button, without even getting out of bed. If he’s low, it will alarm. Sometimes there are false alarms, but it’s worth it. I only get up if there’s a reason to check. This is a good reason to get a dexcom, even with a minimed pump. Besides that the dexcom is more accurate.
We are lucky in that insurance is paying for it. Would I pay out of my own pocket? probably yes.
I also have type 1, and I tried the Dexcom and the Minimed for me, and was not happy with them. Like someone else said, they can have a time lag (20 min), so are not very useful for sports. I also didn’t want to deal with multiple gadgets alarming all day and night. I could always feel myself go low before it would alarm. I found the Dexcom to be much more accurate than the Minimed, and it does last longer (we always use the sensor more than a week, although this might be one cause of some inaccurate readings). And, you can turn off the alarms. Most of them, anyhow.
(by the way the “interstitial fluid” is not “mixed into the blood”-- the cgms just uses interstital fluid to check glucose levels, and meters use blood. They are different, so they adjust the readings on the cgms to conform to blood glucose meter readings.)
As for marks on arms and the size of the things, that is not an issue for a young child. Maybe a teen, who actually cares what they look like, but a 5 year old boy doesn’t care what his arm looks like. My son has a pump in his behind, a cgms on his arm, and 2 gadgets around his waist in a belt. Never slows him down.
Thanks everyone for the very useful info… losts to chew on and bring up @ his next endo visit in Oct.!!!
Which infusion set do you use with the ping that your Dex gauge is smaller?
Your Dexcom works in your room at night? Ours seems go out of range even when it’s across the same room as her. Do you have a secret method? Thanks!
Ha Ha true. There are tubes and things sticking out of my 4 year old and he is still running around like crazy. He has ripped two sets out of his bottom so far from being so active. Good to know about the interstitial fluid versus blood.
I have an Animas ping for my boy but I am in Canada so I am not sure if Dexcom is available here. I will have to check. Does anyone know the gauge of the Dex?
I believe it’s a 26 gauge.
My daughter was 10.5 at diagnosis at we started cgms with Minimed right away. We did have a lot of problems in the beginning - I think because we had so much to learn about T1 and then we chose to start the pump and cgms at the same time. We took a break from CGMS for several months and are now back at it. It can be very frustrating at times. I love it when it works well, though. Right now I think our brand new transmitter is defective, so I don’t have a lot of cgms love today, sorry.
Minimed is currently doing pediatric trials for their new sensor, which will have a smaller gauge and a 7 day life. It may be out in a year or so.
I understand you have a dexcom and your 5 year old son wears it on his arm. We purchased the dexcom in April and because of the cost (our insurance doesn’t cover) and my son who is 8 doesn’t like to wear it we only use it occasionally. We use it when his pump needs adjusting, it gives you so much information you just can’t get with fingersticks alone. I personally love it and when they get it where it will work with the ping if cost will allow I would love for him to wear it all the time. Anyway about the arm we have not yet tried it on his arm only his tummy, how does this work for you?
I was told that Dexcom’s are not available in Canada, but don’t know if that has changed since I last inquired. One would think that it will change at some point, particularly once the Dexcom integrates with Animas.
Annie,
My son is about to turn 5 and we have used a MiniMed CGM on and off for the last year or so. It works very well, and in combination with his OmniPod pump we are very pleased. The only negative with the CGM is that the controller for it is a little bulky and has to be near him the whole time the sensor is inserted. We use it on the weekends and over the summer but not all the time during the school year.
We have found that on many occaisions the number provided by the CGM is within 20 points of his bg as checked with the omnipod and test strip.
The back of his upper arm seems to work fine. His tummy is so small, that once we tried it there, and it didn’t even insert properly. So we stuck with the arm. It probably has more fat than the tummy, in a little one.