My son won't keep his sites in

I’m so incredibly discouraged. After pumping fine with the Ping for a year, my 8 year old son keeps saying his sites are bugging him and pulling them off. After three in one night, we started shots again, and have tried putting in the pump a couple of times, even tried Tegaderm, but the sites lasted less than 10 minutes before he ripped them out again. Of course we can go back to shots, but it’s so much less convenient, his school is bad about things even with his pump, and he likes to eat at friends houses and stuff. He was really pretty good about dosing when he had his pump, but now I think he’ll just sneak food.

I don’t know if it’s some kind of allergy showing up, or if it’s some kind of mental thing. I have some Orbit Micros with a steel set coming; maybe that will help. Any advice??

I really don’t have advice because I can’t imagine going thru this with a young child. I can only send you support and my best thoughts and prayers that things get easier. I am sad when I read about the kids going thru this. The only thing I can compare is my youngest son ( now 23 and just graduated college 12/18/10) was born with many allergies that I did not discover until I tried to feed him. The first that showed up was a milk allergy cuz at 6 weeks his skin was not the sweet soft baby skin but that of a scaly reptile and I’m sure itchy. Turned out I was a heavy milk drinker and certain proteins passed thru the breast milk and affected him. So i had to go “cold turkey” on my milk & in a week his skin was almost normal. As he began foods, found out eventually he was allergic to wheat, oat, barley,rye, almost every fruit & the milk. Nursed him till 18 months cuz they told me to give him tea and kool-aid when I wanted to wean him.Then found out he could tolerate goats milk. Many hospitalizations later from dehydration due to massive amts of diarrhea when he ate offensive food… it slowly eased and by the time he was 7 he could eat most of those foods. Now he is 6’3" & 220 lbs. Who knew, lol. So I can understand your frustration & heartache in trying to help him & keep him healthy. I wish you lots of luck.

<3 Joanne

Do you have a CDE? Maybe she can give you samples of the many products available for dressings. If Tegaderm didn’t help, what about Hypafix? When I first started the pump, I had Tegaderm, and was allergic to it, and yes, it itches unbearably! But for some reason, Hypafix was OK. There is also IV 3000. And maybe others that I don’t know about.
The other thing that might help is a barrier wipe, like IV Prep. Again, I’m sure there are others that I don’t know about.
Or it could be the cannula, in which case a needle set instead of plastic might help.

Good luck, and keep trying!

And in addition to trying different types of sets, tapes, etc I would suggest that you search for a peer group that your son may be able to join where he is not the odd man out. Way back when, and this was before multiple injections in a day or insulin pumps, glucose tablets and glucometers, it was not always a picnic to be at school. Mom always had to come along on any field trip (yuck! Lol!) I got the cupcake without the icing at the class b-day parties. And a summer camp that is diabetic based. Again way back when that was the best thing that my parents allowed me to attend. We all ate the same, all had morning injections, all had to pee in a cup to test our sugar levels! Wow, I really was not so different after all!
I pray that you and your son can find a good solution. Pumping for me is so much easier that injections. I hope he will be able to realize that too.

I can sympathize, I have a spot on my right abdomen that itches like crazy when I put adhesive on it. I mean it is terribly annoying, but I am an adult and I put up with it. I wonder if his skin itches all the time, or just in certain areas? I rotate my spots so this site ( it is in right now) that itches, only is used three days out of every 12. That does help me. If it is in one spot look for other sites, of course that may or may not help.

My other advice is to look at other adhesives. I know MM has different sets, with various degrees of glue on them. I also know that I will often use a non glue cleaning pad, in this one area. Lots of people use IV 3000 bandages. I cannot use these, Instead I use Reliamed bandages. They stick a little better and are less irritating to my skin. I use these with the pump site, for reinforcement and with my CGM site. Here is a site to look at for the bandages I use.

https://www.edgepark.com/shopcatalog/buy/wound-care-%28advanced%29/adhesive-film-dressings/

I also use the reliable protective barrier wipes, this seems to cut down on the amount of itch. here is this site.

http://www.reliamedproducts.com/WC_Wipes.cfm

I cannot swear by this, but a buddy of mine says he uses this natural spray to combat itch. I am not a user, so i cannot swear to it, but it may be worth a try?

http://www.itchnomore.com/

Finally the best sop to use is cetaphil. This has been a life savor for me and I use it every day all over. I realize you are asking about a specific area but i use this soap all over and it helps a lot. I also use Cerve’ cream, not lotions. Lotion is a water based program and needs to be avoided.

http://www.cetaphil.com/

Good luck, This is miserable

rick phillips

Hi Jennifer,

I can’t imagine what you’re going through! What a worry!

There have been some great suggestions about different insets and so on.

Kids will be kids… once they have something in their heads, it’s really hard to change their minds. Even if you do find something that’s not irritating (which he may not help you with), your son may still have it in his head that he doesn’t want the site in.

Have you tried his site in different places - thighs, upper abdomen, wherever you don’t normally put it?

What about a system of rewards along with whatever else you’ll try with different sets and so on?

You could try putting a sheet of IV 3000 dressing over his skin first, then inserting set through this (you would also have to cover set with 3000 dressing). In other words, use a dressing to protect the skin from the adhesive on the back of the pump sets. And he may be sensitive to the adhesive on the dressing, as well, so try different dressings, try to narrow it down. Try different sets. And try to ascertain if he is pulling off the pump because he does not like something attached to him. Or if the kids in school are teasing him? Kid’s don’t like to appear different. Many ways to hide the pump from plain sight, if this is the problem. Good luck! I hope you can get this figured out soon.

Is it possible that this is 8 year old pushing your buttons? I have a 12 year old and can’t imagine getting her to do anything to take care of herself as we are constantly having brouhahas about cleaning rooms, portion sizes, appropriate behavior, etc.? It’s one thing to have an itchy site but going over to a friend’s house and eating crap without a pump or shots would suggest that he’s angry or perhaps looking to pick a fight about it with you. Unfortunately, to paraphrase Vikram Chandra, “the game always wins” and that is certainly true with diabetes?

I have an MM pump and CGM and the sites do get a bit gnarly sometimes, the adhesive tape exfoliates the hair on my abdomen, the CGM sensor leaves an itchy spot the shape of the sensort etched into my abdomen, etc. however I am so addicted to the data from them that I don’t really ever think of taking either of them off? For me the big motive to stay engaged with it are the ghastly long-term complications but I was dx’ed when I was a teenager and it was also a case of not letting diabetes get in the way of my social activities, however unwholesome many of them were.