My daughter as type 1 Diabetes, she has had this for 6 years. she currently does injections 4 times per day, however, due to high hba1c, lumpy sites and not really any kind of consistency with her bood glucose levels the diabetes doctor has recommended we consider an insulin pump. i would be really grateful of any kind of feedback or advice anyone could give me.
Check out this website, there is a parents of pumpers and all there. … You already posted to CWD site, so I won’t mention it 
OK! So they take the link out. GREAT! insulin-pumpers.org. You know to add the http: // and www to that. Sheesh.
Julie, even though I’m 34 years old, I’m a pumping vet. I will celebrate 12 years of pumping this June…24 years with diabetes in December, ugggghhhh. My 11 year old son has a girl in his class that was diagnosed at 4 and her story is quite similar to your daughters. She went on the pump 4 years ago and is soooo happy. I remember speaking with her parents prior to the pump. They were very worried, mostly about surrendering control to their daughter. They had become quite accustomed to spending their lunch hours at school testing her bs and giving her injections. They would call the school every day at 10am and 2pm to remind the secretary it was time for her snack. Can we say OCD. But as as parent, I’m sure they felt it was what they needed to do. Fast-forward to current day, they told me just last night that they have no doubt they made the right decision. She feels like she fits in with her class-mates now. She doesn’t feel like she’s such a burden anymore. Yes, it was tough for them to relenquish control, but they’re proud of her independence and admire her sense of responsibility.
The added bonus in this case is my son knows the signs of highs and lows and how to treat them. He also knows how to turn off her pump when she’s low. I think he likes to help her for other reasons too…she’s pretty cute.
If you’d like to speak directly with them, I’m sure they’d be more than happy to give you advice and their experiences. Safety in numbers.
Curlzzz
thanks so much, your reply was a great help
xxxxx - julie
Hello Julie:
There are many ways to approach this subject, I suppose the easiest being, you want to lower the A1C number, ok, please understand it will not merely happen solely because she will have a pump.
They/you/she still must figure out the correct insulin rates, and there will likely be several rates. It is not going to be instant, it will takes weeks, perhaps months of tweaking and retweaking.
Also please do not confuse having a pump with somehow not having lows/highs any longer. They still happen. Not as frequrntly to hear some tell it, but that was not my experience in the least. Had far worse highs far, far more frequently than I’d ever had in a quarter century prior…
Lows happened too… wish they had gone away.They do not.
The pumps can have benefits but is far, far from the cure all. Regretably,
Stuart.
I have an 11-year-old on the pump, and it is MUCH better than the injections. Her A1Cs are always under 7; even now, when she’s hitting puberty. There are a few problems with the pump (highs because of ‘bad sites’ is the biggest one), but overall I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Now, it is NOT fun at the beginning while your doctor is trying to find out the rates of insulin to set, but it gets much better after a couple of months. It makes life with diabetes a lot easier to live with.
Hi, my niece is 11. She has been on the pump since a few months after dx, at the age of 8. I think the insulin pump is a good choice based on the scenario you describe. You can correct high blood sugars sooner and at a lower level than with MDI. (We used to have to wait until her BS was 200 to correct, as .50, which was the smallest dose on insulin pen, would bring her down 50 points. 150 was her initial target). On the pump, targets immediately became lower. You are able to use the temporary basal features on the pump to increase or decrease insulin by the hour. You can increase/decrease basals according to her true basal pattern. You can use different bolus approaches to cover fatty foods (dual-wave or combo bolus). You can use a super-bolus (giving correction and one or two hours worth of basal up front to reduce very high blood sugars, then decreasing the one or two hour basal you just gave). You can eat five, six or seven times a day if you chose (not recommended by either of the endos who treated her). Or you can eat two meals. It is easier to find caretakers or babysitters when using the pump. I don’t know about the site issue, as you certainly can have site issues with the pump. The Minimed pump can communicate with a continous monitor so you can read your child’s blood sugars in real time. Even temporary use of the cgms can help you stabilize the child’s blood sugars, though if you don’t keep using cgms approximately once a month, the benefits will fade. Don’t expect instant results, though. Learning to use the pump, getting her initial basal rates correct, will take a few months. And with a child basal rates will still change, still be erratic. It’s just easier to address the constant change with the pump. Investigate all the pump companies to find the one right for you, as you can use another cgms with the other brands of pumps. And I would advise getting a prescription for EMLA (lidocaine) cream, applying one to one and-a-half hours prior to site change, to numb the area where you are going to insert the pump. This will make using the pump pain free.