Hi there! I’m a mom to 3 awesome kids, none of which are diabetic. My littlest (almost 15 months) has been waking up very shaky and irritable lately and after discussing with our dr, we have decided to get a few bg readings to see if she’s on the lower end. There seems to be so many different meters and lancets out there, I don’t know where to start! I was hoping we could get some recommendations for a lancet that is least painful for little fingers and the most accurate meter. Thank you!
For a lancet, we like:
Accu-Chek FastClix
It is “1 click action”. Very quick and easy. Has a “drum” with six lancets. You put the drum on and then can advance it for a new lancet. When done, remove and throw - no exposed sharp edges.
Also a dial to set the depth for different size fingers (I guess skin thickness).
For meter, we have been using the One Touch Ultra meters/strips.
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I only change lancets every other week and therefore like the Accu-Chek Softclix. It has all the same features FastClix except only one lancet.
Meters I like the Contour Next USB and/or One. Easy to use, very small sample size and the test strips are cheap on Amazon. They also seem to be pretty accurate.
The Freestyle Freedom Lite, the Bayer Contour Next and True Matrix are all rated excellent by a popular consumer magazine. In reality, I find a number of meters are accurate enough to be very useful. In your situation though, I don’t think super accuracy is required. You are trying to differentiate between a normal and significantly low reading. Cost really isn’t important either, at least not at this stage. If you will be using a 100 or so strips each month, that’s another matter.
I’m not convinced that there is a lancet device that hurts less and I’ve tried a number of them. What is important is that you get a device where you can dial in the depth of penetration. I would start at the lowest setting and work up until you get a sufficient drop of blood. Remember to start with clean, dry fingers. And don’t squeeze so much that the blood is diluted with interstitial fluid. Up the number by one instead.
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While I don’t change my own lancets often because I’m lazy and it works ok, fresh lancets definitely hurt the least, so for your child who is not used to it, I would change them out each time or close to it, just for that reason. (However, if your child is diabetic and eventually re-uses their lancet a whole bunch someday, don’t worry about it, we almost all do it. Hopefully won’t be an issue though!)
Thank you all so much for the suggestions and tips! It’s greatly appreciated.