Have any of you tested all your basal rates in one go? ie dont eat for 24 hours and test every hour? Is it even practical?
I think that some people do this however I havent done it myself.
I usually test mine in 24 hour periods – I did that both with MDI & when I was using the pump. If I start the basal test and get a good chunk into it and have to stop but I know the first 12 hours are good, once I adjust my rates, I would just do the part that failed or was not tested
Thanks Kelly
I had brekkie this morning but have skipped lunch so I’ll see how long I can go.
My hardest part is the coffee factor - I need my coffee! I usually start about noon so I can have my AM coffee, then if I make thru the next morning, I can at least have coffee at lunch when I finish. I forgot to add that I test mine every hour, even overnight but I have seen some people say that they do the odd hours one night & the even ones another night so they don’t hear the alarm every hour.
Good luck!
Surely you can have drinks? I still have a cup of tea when I’m testing. Can you have black coffee?
You are not supposed to have anything with caffeine in and it is the caffeine that I want.
For me drinking coffee has an immediate effect like pouring lighter fluid on a fire!
Ah ok, I only drink decaff - tea and coffee.
I think it depends on whether or not black coffee affects your blood sugar. For me it doesn’t. I’ve always tested my basal with my coffee!
I have never bothered with basal testing. When I got on the pump, for example, I was able to see from keeping careful records of blood sugars what periods of time I was too high (or too low) and then tweak basals for those periods until my blood sugar came into range. I think that works really well on the pump with the ability to set up multiple different “time zones” and tweak by very small increments. On MDI with much rougher basal control it might not work as well.
I do the testing because I want to know for sure that I can skip meals without a problem. Tweaking helps sometimes if it is just a slight adjustment but I still like to know that I am not going to go low if I need to skip a meal.
Here is a Diatribe article written by Gary Scheiner about basal testing that I posted for someone else a couple days ago. It mentions no caffeine.
I think its generally recommended to do it in sections. I know that my numbers change drastically when I fast for extended periods of time. Meaning, my basals are different when I fast over 12 hours than when I fast for 8.
I drink coffee all day - 1/2 & 1/2 decaf and reg. My coffee is built into my basals 
When I have done basal testing, I never do it all in a 24-hour period. I’m too much of a b!%$h when I go all day without food. I test periods that coincide with my basal rates (generally night, morning/afternoon, and evening). But I will confess that I don’t do a lot of formal basal testing because it’s just so tedious. I’ve had better results just looking at all my data and then adjusting based on where I see the highs and lows.
Thanks everyone, I’m spending a week doing sections at a time, currently doing the early evening slot so no dinner yet!
im starting basal tests on my 7 yr old that went on the pump.....but im confused with what i can feed him before the test. Any help would be appreciated.
I dont basal test either. I do like Zoe, if I see a trend I usually adjust my basal rate based on that. Works good for me.
We just finished basal testing on my 4 yr old. Its hard b/c they cannot go 8 hrs without eating. Instead of skipping a meal, we had scrabbled eggs. Tried to keep snacks to a minimum and then if she needed something we'd give her cheese or veggies and sugar free drinks/popsicles. Its maybe not a "perfect" test, but with kids I think its pretty close. We did, on occasion see a tiny rise within 2 hrs after eating the protein, but not enough that I would have changed rate for that segment. Hope that helps some.