We've been at this diabetes things for over 2 years. My diabetic daughter is 6, and I thought I was really on top of all this diabetes stuff....but every three months for the past three years we have to adjust something with her insulin. I get it straighted out, bg's and everything are "perfect" (whatever that means for a Type 1) and then three months later we are "out of control" and have to adjust the basal or carb ratio, or even the ISF. I thought for certain it was the seasons... hence every three months. But I just want to know from all of you, does this sound normal? Changes this frequent? I know she's growing and stuff, but should it steady off eventually? We've been at this 2 years, I considered myself a bonified PHD in diabetes, but now I want to bang my head against the wall.
Sept = super high all day. Made some adjustments. Sugars great... now three months later in December....super low all the time. Time to change again. UGH!
I would say that we change something every couple of weeks. I think it's getting more frequent now as my son is 12 and about to hit puberty, but still - I can't imagine going a whole three months with the same settings. So yes, I would say it sounds normal. However, my son was diagnosed at 8 so we never did the 4-6 year old thing.
Well that makes me feel more "normal". I hate the changes. When she hits adulthood, aside from periods and such, should her rates/ratios steady off you think?
My daughter is 6 also - she has had diabetes since 2 years old. I probably make slight adjustments every 2-3 weeks - but we have major overhauls every few months (where it seems like we are changing all the basal rates first up up up then down down and she ends up slightly higher than where she was). Our biggest changes seem to be overnight and the breakfast I:C - I always feel like I am tweaking those. So I would say perfectly normal - if not a bit better than our normal :) Also, we always have to change when she starts camp or school - this year she seemed to have a growth spurt right after the start of school (also a major UTI)- so I feel her numbers are only steady recently. SO frustrating sometimes!
Celeste you so right. I find that we tweak dosages every 2-3 weeks. Sweetmom your adjustments are really better than normal. I am also experiencing changes of BG levels as the seasons change. So I am glad that others do too. Its frustrating but keep the faith.
My son has had T1D for 10 years, starting at 20 months. Up until the last 6 months or so we made changes quite frequently. He is now nearly 12 (in two weeks) and I have noticed in the last 6 months we have not changed a lot. Strange because he is very obviously hormonal and I would have expected him to be all over the place like he was as a toddler, but we haven't seen it yet.
The one thing that has very much tapered off in the last year are the dramatic and fast lows. This is a huge relief to us!
Thank you everyone. Seems that this is normal. Having to change all the time makes me feel like I don't know what I'm doing, because once we realize we need to change a dose (that BG craziness is not just a 'fluke' event) a few weeks go by, then the dose adjustment process is slow, so it takes at least another week to get that squared away.
The recent change that prompted me to write this was a change in carb ratio by 5 grams. It's been typical to change by one or two up or down, but 5 grams seems extreme. But by golly it's working. We honeymooned 2 years ago, so I don't think that's the issue here. Sigh. I'll keep plugging along right!
Sorry for the late reply - but yes I'm hoping that in 10 years my son will have much more predictable rates. Not only because he won't be growing anymore but because his schedule will be more consistent as an adult (potentially.) With sports and other things he seems to be all over the place no matter what we do right now.
