Hi I was just wondering for those of you with younger children do you change infusion sets every 2 days or every 3. If you change every 3 days, are your numbers good on the 3rrd day? Our pump trainer said that generally children can only get 3 days from an infusion set as their numbers will be higher on the 3rd day and that we shoudl just change them every 2. We did this at first then one day I forgot until bedtime so I thought I would wait and see if his numbers did go up on the 3rd day, but they were fine. the next time though on the 3rd day he did have higher numbers (15 at lunch and after school before changing site). It has been 2 days on the current site and he was 20 a while ago, but we had to guess carbs in something he ate earlier. I corrected him half of his normal correction since he did still have some active insulin and now an hour later he is 12.8 (we are in canada), so maybe it was just bad guessing of carbs or food beating the insulin. So I was just curious what others do as I am not sure if we should keep pushing for 3 days per set or just change after 2.
I can’t isolate the third day often enough to be sure, but I think we see high numbers at the very end of the third day - which sometimes makes it look like he needs extra insulin because of the change, but I think it only happens when we do three days. We usually do 3 changes a week to be consistent and to line up with our schedule. So we change on Monday, Thursday and Saturday - 2 times 2 days, and one 3 day. It’s really more for convenience, and since our prescription for supplies is written for 2 days, it works out well for us.
More often than not, we use all 72 hours and frequently 80 hours of a Pod without any issue at all. There is occasion that the 3rd day will have highs, though it may have nothing to do with the site. They are rare enough that I don’t feel I need to plan for them by changing Pods every two days.
At times I have left a site in for up to 3 days, but I normally change every 2 days. I haven’t noticed anything with her numbers, but I worry about scar tissue build-up which is why I change every two days. I’ve noticed a few times after leaving it in for 3 days she had a small red bump at the site that took time to disappear.
Take care~ Jessica
5-year-old boy here with Typ1 pumping on Animas Ping with Inset 30’s… I’ve noticed an Inconsistent difference at 3 days. There seems to be so many variables involved in the duration of his site and the effectiveness of his insulin that there’s no practical way for us to logically “pin down” when it’s really going bad or not. Sometimes I’m completely sure that he’s got higher numbers because it’s the 3rd day, other times he’s got great numbers on the 3rd day. Sometimes he’s got terrible numbers on the second day!
There are so many variables involved in how your child responds to his/her regular doses that the suggestion to change every 2 days is a good one… if only to eliminate one of the variables.
We change Tyler every 2-3 days - depending on a number of things.
I like this idea, since with the set day of the week it would also be easier to remember, then most of the time it is 2 days, but sometimes 3 which would cut down slightly on the site changes without having issues on the 3rd day.
also curious if you re-use resevoirs or always use a new one.
I don’t know about anyone else - but I always use a new one. I just think about bacterial growth, degradation of components, etc… I have to pay a significant portion of every order we place with Animas but it just doesn’t seem worth it to re-use.
My 2 1/2 year granson just started pumping last week. His trainer told my daughter that she could probably get 3 days out of it and apparently that is what the literature says. When we went to pump training class and though they didn’t actually come out and say it, we all received the message that it should be changed every two days despite what the literature says. Since we’ve been using the pump for so short a time, I have no knowledge of how high the numbers would be on the third day. What I can tell you is that my daughter tried to leave it on for three days and it started to fail to deliver insulin during the second night. She discovered this because his numbers continued to be high despite being dosed. While he was asleep, she changed the site (we found it interesting that he didn’t even flinch despite the fact that he really doesn’t like having it changed while being awake) and all was well. I’m sure there may be times when his site will remain on for three days, but most of the time we will probably shoot for two.
Cathy - that’s how we know when we have a failed site… high BG… dose… no food… even higher BG. I’ve done a significant number of those 2am site changes and unfortunately - my son sleeps well through being tested - but not through site/set changes. Middle of the night set changes – for us anyway - are a good reason all by themselves to do them earlier proactively.
I agree, Chris. My grandson’s trainer, however, recommended not changing the site while he sleeps because then you have to stay up to actually make sure that it works. I think my daughter may be considering doing just that anyway since sleep is a rare commodity for her. She was telling me the other day that she rarely sleeps in more than one hour intervals. She has considered getting a cgm despite the fact that they’re not really recommended for kids so young. She would love to have the peace of mind at night. From different posts on Tudiabetes, though, it sounds as though the cgm site changes are far worse than those of the pump - so I think she’s going to hold off until he’s a little older and has more body fat. The pump is REALLY helping his numbers, though. In just a week we have seen such a difference! Prior to the pump, his numbers were all over the place. Now, though he has an occasional high or low - he is right on target. Woohoo!
spot-on! We tried “regular” shot therapy for the first 3 months after Ty was diagnosed… then some friends of our’s put together an amazing fund raiser to help us buy the pump. Life is WAY better with the pump.
As for not changing it at night though? I’d rather change it in the middle of the night and then have to get up another 1-2 hours later to check him again than give him a 1-3 shots in the middle of the night and then change him in the morning…
Leaving it alone completely and just waiting for morning is not an option… if I let Ty stay at BG 300+ for more than 4-5 hours - that’s when DKA starts.
My wife and I are foster parents and we are also a high school youth leaders… so there’s a small group of 14-17-year-olds that treat my house like their own and us like their “other parents” as well as Foster children coming in and out of our lives… meaning basically that we’ll get calls at 2am from crying 16-year-olds… social workers… or babies in our care waking us up…
All this just to say… I can identify with your daughter’s inability to sleep normally. Even still - I’ll get up every night religiously 1-3 times to check my son… that’s one of my “dad jobs”. 
It’s a messy life - but you get used to the consequences because the fulfillments are worth it. 
Ella will be 4 in jan. dx at 2. We change every two days. From experience we always have bad numbers if we wait until the third day. That being said the T-SET infusion set with the Minimed has been THE ONLY one that I can trust for 3 days for about 20% of the time. she is so active, that it usually just works it way out by day 3.
Hope this helps.
I would never have even realized it is possible to re-use them until someone else suggested it. while it could save on cost you are right. I have kept an extra needle/plunger just in case we ever need to.
we fill the cartridge full and change it out for a new full one when it’s empty. This rarely coincides with infusion site changes. I used to put in “3 days” worth of insulin in a cartridge and change it with every site change and found I either ran out before the 3rd day or was wasting insulin by throwing the cartridge away with 10 or more units in it. This system seems to work better. We’ve recently started seeing a pattern of higher numbers on the 3rd day and are moving to a 2 day change - much to our 10 year-old’s chagrin.
I can see high numbers anywhere from day 2.5 (very late evening/overnight) or any time during day 3. Usually, though, we do get three days out of a site change. When the numbers are high, we are supposed to change the site even if it is early. I think I would try for three days, keep a close eye on things and see what happens.
We do every 3 days. If you see good numbers, stick with 3. No one really likes to have their site changed, so why do it earlier than needed?
that is kind of what I was thinking- rather than assume the numbers will be bad and change every 2, to try 3 and see if the 3rd day has numbers that aren’t so good, then I think I would try the 3 times a week on set days thing (which is a little less changing than every 2 days). I was even thinking saturday before lunch and monday, wednesday afterschool so then we aren’t actually doing a full 3 days and the day he might be higher would be a saturday when he is at home with us.
our son is 7, we have been on the paradigm 754 fro 3 months now. we change eavery 3 days. to avoid scar tissue we use amla cream, it sooths the skin and prevents rashes.
is anyone using the square bolus on their kids, we are not sure what the benfits are and the 2 ocassions we have tried the sugar levels were too high and erratic, probably cos we did not know what we were doing.
so far we are doing okay with 3 days. the last time we were on day 3 he was low all day. what is amla cream?
We have not used the square wave bolus, but I have used the dual wave bolus. one day his class was having cupcakes right after lunch and i could not come back to the school. I didn’t want him to go low before getting the cupcake, but i wanted to count it in to the lunch bolus. I put half of his bolus for the first part and half for the second part and i had it end right before he was scheduled to eat the cupcake. A lot of people use square wave for things like pizza, but we haven’t had an issue with pizza ourselves.