I have tested my son in the middle of the night when he has been low at his regular bedtime test. Should I be testing him in the middle of the night regularly? Do you test your child through out the night?
My dad used to do that to me when I was first diagnosed. As long as your kid doesn’t mind, I say go for it. The more you know, the better off you and your son will be.
Pops got a little brave one day and actually tried to give me a shot while I was sleeping. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I can remember waking up as soon as he stuck me…I just stared at him like “you gotta be kidding me”
When I see high blood glucose in the morning,I ask the parent to test in the middle of the night to see if the high is a result of lows at night
If there is disturbed sleep pattern I ask to test at night
If there were lots of physical activity prior to bed time
Mothers of small children,like test on daily basis,worried about lows
Hello:
As a parent, if it gives YOU comfort to do so… its your loss of sleep. If you beleive there is a bonefide cause, again test away.
As others have said, if he’s got a high in the AM that you can’t account for, you might want to test him. Looking to see how his long acting is doing in the middle of the night once in a while, sure, why not.
But “in general” middle of the night testing will do nothing useful save perhaps reduce your fear for a few moments, if you are disposed towards over worrying.
Stuart
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to type my 2 cents…I do test Shelby (age 4) in the middle of the night most nights if her numbers are off or I feel funny I will do a 2 am check. I think what ever you are able to do, do it without makeing yourself go crazy from missing sleep. I tend to wake up from her dxd still at 2 am so I do it most nights or I will set my alarm if her numbers are off so I do wake up. Well hope you gys have a great day!
Korin
I test my son EVERY night around 2am, but I also check him before I go to bed (10:30pm). If he has had a crazy active day (sports) or swimming I check him more often. I either correct his blood sugar with insulin, wake him up to pee if he is high, or give him juice if I don’t think he will make it until the morning. On the rare days that I sleep through the alarm I wake up in a panic. Sometimes I am scared to go in and check on him for fear of what I will find.
I quite often test my son in the night as he is still so out of control. We think we get there and then BANG everything goes wild! I seem to have the knack of gadging him being low in the night and I wake up, (call it mothers intuition if you like, or from my point of view the fact that I’m petrified something will happen to him), test and deal with it if needed giving him lucozade and food if necassary, as quickly as possible, then re settle him. Most of the time he barely opens his eyes! There was a night where his levels just did not want to come up and the poor kid was fighting his eyelids for two reasons then! I always think if in doubt what’s the harm and from Jay-Jay’s point of view (my son) what’s another hole anyway?
not throughout the night ,but we take the last test around 23.00. If his bloodsugar is OK then we don´t test any more until before breakfast around 06.30. With the pump we´ve menaged to keep his bloodsugar pretty stabil. But if´s he´s low at 23.00 or if we know that stomach flue is running around us we take extra tests. Just to be sure…
Well, when my son was diagnosed, I was told that I did not have to test him in the middle of the night, but I was really nervous about it, so I started to set my alarm at 2 am or so ! I have done that for about 2 1/2 years. Well, now, I stopped this past summer, because I was just too tired. Now, I struggle to get myself out of bed to test him. He is 13 and going through puberty. He is very physically active and he rises during games and competitions and then drops afterwards (He wears his pump during games and he is still elevated!!) I feel it is safer for me to test him but boy - it is exhausting!!! I do delays frequently to make sure his basal rate is holding him steady, but the sleep disruption catches up with me.
I have been testing in the middle of the night (~2 am) for the three weeks since Eric was diagnosed, but I was just told by the clinic that I no longer have to–we have pretty good control and his numbers are where they should be, so they told me to only test once a week and eventually taper back to once a month. It makes me a little worried because sometimes in the night I have found him a little on the low side, in the high 70s or even high 60s (his target is 100-200) but I’ve found that he often will wake up and cry if he’s that low.
I’m pretty relieved to have been given the green light to let go of the 2 am tests because I’m exhausted, and functioning at only about half capacity–which is bad for my performance at work and bad for my well being overall.
You sound just like me and my situation. My son is also very very active in sport - nearly 13. (Diagnosed at 6) I also am really too tired to get up. I noticed his Bg’s were a bit high lately so I decided to get up again - I must have had a gut feeling - his Bg was High and he had ketones which made him very ill… At the end I bolused for ketones and had to test every hour - very little sleep. Today his Bg’s were on the high side - I think it must be puberty so I will do intensive testing the next few days and adjust his basal rates.
When he was on multiple injections I tested during the night - firstly to see if the meal bolus injection was enough that could be round about 10 then at 3 to see if the Lantus was sufficient and then I also tested early in the mornings for lantus.
When Tyler was diagnosed I think I did it for almost a year maybe sleeping through a night or too just from being so tired ,and the doctor said he has to prick his finger enough,dont do it when you dont have to so I stoped. Now when they increase his Lan. I have to do 2 am checks for 3 nights when the 4th night comes I say should I or should I night the fear of something happening at night is very strong and hard to get over and then having to live with I should have checked (I am sure all the parents know what I am saying ) .Ty was 11, I dont know how yall do it with a young one, I am sure that is very hard . At sometime we just have to let go and let God. Two and 1/2 years later I am much better the 3 night thing still gets me if the sugar was right all 3 nights I am fine if not up a few more nights .
At some point you do have to just trust that it’s going to be OK. We can agonize all we want about “should I, shouldn’t I” but my son’s endo told me a very important thing right away: we’re his parents, not his pancreas. A pancreas can monitor blood glucose 24/7 and respond, a parent cannot, so you shouldn’t expect that you’re going to be right there to catch it if it falls. Which doesn’t make you any less fearful, I know–but you can also use common sense to head off trouble. Be alert to the things that warn you of a potential problem–is there a pattern of late night crashes? Does he not eat much at dinner? Does he run around a lot before bed? If so, that means you need to get in the habit of offering him something to eat before bedtime–preferably a slow-acting carbohydrate like some carrots, or maybe some wheat toast and peanut butter. Something with fiber and protein, but not a lot of sugar, so it doesn’t shoot his glucose way up right away, but converts slowly. Not all carbohydrates are created equal–complex carbs in fruits & veggies take longer to convert to glucose, so if he needs a boost before bed, go with that. And, if you pair the carb with protein and fiber, that helps too. So to a certain extent just knowing a littie about how food makes blood sugar change, and what can help slow down the changes, can help relieve your anxiety.
We still test overnight most nights. She is not stable. For instance, last night, on recently tested overnight basals, she was high all night with corrections and woke up at 140, which is also too high. I do midnight, set an alarm for 2 or 3. I have two alarms, one across the room from the other and, on ocassion, have slept through both of them! She is the only young child, though, no others, so I can catch up on sleep while she is in school. Working part time and not during the school week so that helps a great deal as well.
We continue to test our daughter overnights as well. We test at 11pm and 2-3 am. We quit for awhile, and then had an awful night. Lexi (my daughter - she’s 6) is on the pump. Her site went bad, so we replaced the set, corrected the BG, gave her her evening meal and bolus, checked her several times up until midnight, then left her for the night. At about 4:30 am, we woke up to her screaming and seizing. After administering the glucagon, she came back around, but…We were so scared. Now we just do it to get a better night’s sleep.
I have recently started doing some reading about adjusting basal rates, to keep the BG more stable in the overnights. It is a little scary to me to make these adjustments, but I have found that the more I read and adjust, the more understanding I have for how she’ll react to the insulin.
Yes!
I do test him at about 2 AM every night since he has been diagnosed.
He is 7 now (diagnosed at 3)
I grew up diabetic and things have changed since then. Back then the only testing we had was to pee on a stick.I hated it when my mom would wake me up for that but I think if he has been having problems it would be a good thing to watch him. If anything he may take better care of himself during the day so he could sleep through the night.
I test every night at twelve and three. I went on a pump three weeks ago and we are still adjusting my rates. Hopefully someday soon I will be able to sleep through the night.
I test every night at twelve and three. I went on a pump three weeks ago and we are still adjusting my rates. Hopefully someday soon I will be able to sleep through the night.