Butterfly test strips

What’s the deal with the butterfly teat strips? Will they work on my pdm? What about the lite strips?

If the Freestyle box says “Lite” they will NOT work with the PDM.

As for the butterfly strips there are mixed reviews. I;ve used several boxes of them and have had no problem. I’ve tested them against the older test strips and had no problem but several others on here have reported having trouble. So I think if you can get a hold of the old strips you should try and stay with those.

But dont use the :Lite" strips.

i JUST RECEIVED SOME OF THE NEW STRIPS. FOR SOME REASON, MY PDM REJECTED 3 OUT OF 4. SOMETIMES THEY WORKED AND MOST TIMES IT DID NOT. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. THE CODE 16 WAS USED.
I AHVE TRIED CALLING MANUF BUT HARD TO GET THROUGH.

I use the Freestyle Lite strips and haven’t had a single problem at all ever since I switched 3 months ago. In fact, during the 3 months I switched from the old Lite strips to the new ones with the little tabs that help pull the blood in and they are the best strips I have ever used. I never have a messed up reading or error.

neither on the lite will work. with the butterflies, its not the butterfly on the box (both the old approved box and the box for the new non-coded strips have a butterfly in the box), but the SHAPE of the strip, the new ones have a triangle where the old style has only the 1/2 circle on each side of the strip.

Hmm. I may not be understanding all the responses correctly, but I think some may be different than our experience.

The old non-butterfly Lite strips do not work in the PDM - there is no way to get a reading. However, the new butterfly strips, whether packaged “Lite” or otherwise will indeed work in the PDM.

The accuracy of the butterfly strips, however, has been questioned by some as Romintek has mentioned. Many report having no problems, some are concerned that they are not as accurate, some say they are more accurate.

We recently used up our temporary supply of the new butterly lite strips. I bought a lite meter as to compare. I used code 16 on the pdm. Most of the time the numbers were within 5 points of each other. However there were some checks when the numbers were 20-30 points off. I noticed when my sons bs was higher and more out of range the numbers were further off. I just went with the lower number as to not stress about over correcting. I just recently was able to find some old strips through liberty medical and they sent me 13 boxes of 50s. I had to stress they were the old freestyle strips for the omnipod. So we’re set for a while. I’m glad to have the old strips and not worry as much about the bs checks being correct. Diabetes is stressful enough with out this added drama.

Perhaps everyone has such mixed experiences because the new strips haven’t been cleared yet - this is right from the Omnipod website:

"Insulet is awaiting clearance from the FDA for the use of the new FreeStyle® test strips in the OmniPod PDM.
Please continue to use your current FreeStyle® test strips until Insulet obtains FDA clearance. "

Just my little “test” from Caleb’s bgs today so far. Not yet noticing a material difference between old and new strips in the PDM or vs. an independent Lite meter. Each scenario uses the same blood drop for all three strips.



PDM/old, PDM/new, Lite Meter

91, 82, 95

104, 119, 111

76, 80, 73

107, 112, 113

Thanks guys for all of your input and experiences, Lorraine your tests helped a lot. My pharmacy only has the butterfly strips and he said thats all that they will be getting is just the new butterfly strips.

Latest result 132, 125, 134 :slight_smile: Not only are the strips cooperating, but so are Caleb’s bgs!

Mine, roo. I reordered and one the was the old but in a different color box and five with the NEW on the label. My pharmacy is checking to see if they order in the 100 strip container, if she can get the old ones. CVS

So I have the second generation PDM and the new butterfly strips will work. Accuracy is another subject. I just went into my endo and we did a test one with hers and then mine with the omnipod and the new strips they were about 50 points difference! THIS IS A BIG DIFFERENCE. Can’t wait to see what my A1C is, since I’ve been using the newer strips for about 90 days… my last A1C was 7. I’ll let you know when I get the results in about 5 days. I;m going to get a Freestyle meter until this is corrected!
I have heard that the new strips will not work with the older PDM.

Since I trusted you before with the pod…maybe I will try another comparison with a different vile. I had huge differences when I used the old and new.

:slight_smile: Hi Jon!

We’ve continued to use them, now without any comparisons, and I think we’re doing okay. Definitely compare and tell us what you see.

I even did a test of my own nonD blood sugars, and the results were all reasonable and consistent with the old strips.

Fingers crossed you don’t see huge variances again.

I had a pod go bad and so I called Insulet in Texas. After giving my numbers for the lots and answering the required questions, I asked about the strips and was told to use the old strips only. He said they are hard to find, but he would sent me freestyle meter to use until the FDA approves the new strips.

I was told the same from omnipod…use a separate meter. All the CVS in Ct no longer are going to carry the old butterfly strips. What coding is everyone using with the new strips? Omnipod said it was waiting for the code.

I received the pods but now meter- still waiting for CVS to see if they can get the old strips from Abbott.

Check with your control solution to make sure you are getting a good read. Mine was showing a 40-60 point variance with my other meter. The control solution read 54! I called Abbott’s Customer Service on Monday and they do a one time replacement of up to 500 strips. They shipped me 400 of the classic strips with boxes to ship back the 400 Butterfly strips my pharmacy had sent me last month. They also gave me the number to another Online Pharmacy (Minipharmacy) who will now be supplying me with the old strips (they are very familiar with this situation). My A1C went from a 6.0 to a 7.0 in the time I was using the New Strips because I had NO IDEA that there was a variance. Really not impressed!

So far my PDM and the Flash meter are reading about the same with the new butterfly strips. Will continue to check on both til the old strips run out. Interesting is that the old strips were reading about 20 points higher every time. Looks like the new strips are indeed more accurate.