I’m trying to get to know my new Omnipod and am excited about the extended bolus option. I trird it last night with a high carb, high fat treat, thinking that the fat would slow the absorption, but ended up with a reading of 250 2 hours later. It’s individual I realize, but I am curious to know how other pumpers use the function…what works for you with what foods?
I am also on the Omnipod! Welcome to the podding world! I just used the extended bolus for lunch yesterday. When I got to the option, I did 55% insulin upfront and extended the rest over one hour. It worked for me. Sometimes I don’t do enough insulin, and of course I will end up high. If it was your first try, don’t give up =) Practice makes perfect! Best of luck!
Thanks sugarbabie…most likely I just didn’t give myself enough insulin. That’s what I get for eating trash! I guess not all high fat foods are slower to effect your #'s.
I have the minimed, and it has the dual square wave feature. Virtually all of my food boluses are extended – 70% upfront, 30% over the next two hours. For certain high fat foods, I will do it 50% upfront, 50% over 4 hours. It is trial and error for me on figuring out what works for what foods, but the 70/30 seems to work as a general rule.
Jonathan…which foods require a longer extension for you?
Pizza, chicken parmigiana, grilled cheese sandwich, tuna melt (all things I probably should not be eating anyway, but like too much to give up). Pretty much anything that has a lot of fat in it.
I find that sometimes I have to up the suggested insulin bolus for the given amount of CHO by about 20%. For instance, if the bolus calculator suggests a total of 7 units, I might give 5 as an immediate bolus and 3 extended over 3 hours. The meals that I find work really well for this are Chinese food, pizza, fatty pasta dishes, or “meat and potatoes” type meals. It’s different for each person. You just use trial and error and find your best settings for each type of food!
Caleb has been using the OmniPod for about 2 years. Foods we use an extended bolus for include: pizza, chinese and pasta. For pizza and chinese, we have to bolus 100%+ of all the carbs he eats when he eats it and then add another 80% (which is .80 units for Caleb) over the next 8 hours to keep his BGs in range. For pasta, we need to reduce the initial bolus by about 25% with the same extended bolus as pizza and chinese. For any fried foods, ice cream and bagels, it’s a similar scenario, but not quite so much insulin in the extension. It’s all something I’ve figured out through trial and error and frankly, I’m still trying to figure them out - it’s always changing for us. 
-Lo
Thanks everyone…I wish there was a formula that works for us all to plug into our PDM. Of course, we try not to eat this stuff, but have to once in a while. My problem last night was caused by a burger and fries.
Lorraine, I assume Caleb is a child. I know kids blood sugars can be extra hard to regulate…good luck to you…he’s lucky to have you looking out for him.
Yes - woops. He’s 6. Tons of fun :).