My daughter is 4 and we have been pumping since April. Cannot say that I love it yet. We use Animas Ping. The pump itself is fine it’s the infusion sets I have trouble with…we currently use the Inset 30, I believe these are the angled ones. They work okay but I have to be sure to change it every 2 days. Occasionaly the cannula kinks. When all is working well, it’s great but when it’s not she gets high quickly. My question is : what infusion sets do you like for your active preschoolers?
Hello!
We use the Medtronic silhouette which is also at an angle. I find the cannula kinks much less than the 90 degree angle sets.
My daughter is 5 now, but has worn a pump all through her childhood…we’ve always changed the sites every 2 days because the Endo told us too. I notice her BGs increase if I happen to leave it in on the third day, so I try to be vigilant with changes.
Take care!
One option might be the Orbit micros? They are steel canuals but they are the smallest on the market and wont kink :). Somthing we are trying now is a new set on the market made by Spring. Not sure how well they would stay on a active 4 year old. What is unique about them is they have a spring to insert the canula as well as a spring to retract the needle. It all happens in a split second and then by looking at the base you are suppose to be able to see if the canulla is kinked. All I can say is our first one went on easy and have not had any issues yet.
My daughter is 4 as well and has the Animas Ping. I LOVE IT! Have tried many infusion sets and find Micro Orbit to be the best (although it is not covered here in Canada), so we use The Accu-Check Rapid D. The disconnect is not at the site so no worry about hurting her or moving needle when we try to disconnect. We have only used the steel canuals and our diabetic coach has suggested we stay on them. We do site changes every three days (her numbers stay level and she has no irritation/bleeding, so endo suggested we go to every three days) gives her that one day extra :) We have never had a site fall out or fail! Good luck to you :)
We tried the orbit and found out my daughter is allergic to stainless steel so she cannot use them. BUT we have tride the new Spring Infustion sets and so far they are working well. My daughter is now changing her site by herself when we use the these infustion sets because they are spring loaded and do the insert and extraction of the needle in a split seconds.
Great post, thanks! My daughter (age 7) also uses the inset 30's most of the time and we still get kinks every now and then. Though I have to say they are more reliable than the 90 degree angled insets for us. I have an orbit sample that I've been holding onto for who knows what reason but have thought about trying it recently. How did you learn your daughter was allergic to the stainless steel - was it a super bad reaction? Now I'm kind of afraid to try it!
We tried inset 30s this summer and got high blood sugars from them. Every time. This should not happen because it's a sil. I think it's the spring loaded feature; there is a way to slow it down but forgot the demonstration. We use Minimed pump except when she is in the water so went back to silouhettes, inserted manually. She is lean and they told us we still have to use th angled sets. They have been working reliably for more than five years. We will be trying the Mio, because that will be easier for her to insert herself, soon. But they are straight-in sets. I would go with Comfort shorts (which are Animas sils). Very reliable. If your CDE will train you to insert manually, you can control the angle, depth of insertion. Manual insertion is not difficult to do.
sorry for the late reply, just noticed this posting. We noticed while on shots she would break out with a rash mostly on her face and sometimes redness around the shot location. At that time we couldn't really say for sure since it only happened once in a great while. When we tried out the orbit within 24 hours she was breaking out on her face again and by 36 hours she was breaking out around the infusion set. So we removed the set and it cleared up in the next 48 hours. We also noticed when she wears cheaper earrings etc she will break out. I read it is not that uncommon for people to be allergic to the nickel in stainless steel .