We are looking for advice/experience on infusions sets - my son is almost 8 years old and extremely active. Also, what do we need to do in extreme weather conditions? Sledding in the winter or running around and sweating in the summer. Playing hockey, soccer, etc.
Any advice/experience would be greatly appreciated.
My son is 4 and is on the ping pump. We use the 6mm straight all in one insets. At first he would pull out the sites so we started to use I.V. prep and then I.V. 3000 on top of the site. That seems to really help.
congrats on the pump! we love our ping. Abbie (7) has been using for 18 months. She’s also very active. We’re in SF, so don’t have the cold weather issues, but here’s our foolproof solution for hot/humid/wet-- apply SkinTac to area where you inserting set…and after set is in and plugged in to pump cover the area with an IV cover. If he unplugs to swim, etc – put another IV cover over the area.
good luck
Thanks for writing back. Where do you buy the Skin Tac and IV cover? Just at the local drug store?
Hello. We have been on the Animas Ping for 9 days now. My very active 4 year old has ripped two Orbit micro infusion sites ( 90 degree 31 gauge steel cannula) out of his bottom plus he can feel the tiny steel cannula so we’ve moved to Cleos (90 degree teflon) on his arm using Coloplast which is stickier than Skin Prep but less sticky than Skin Tac. They work awesome in that area.
On his bottom I am looking for an infusion site that is a 90degree teflon with a low profile. I figure this should be the winner for an active boy if you can find one. I have also heard that the Inset 90s tend to Kink a lot and my hospital says not to use them for initial calibration of the pump because they are unreliable. That is enough right there to not even try them.
If your boy has some girth you could try the Accu chek Rapid D. It has a smaller needle (29 gauge?) and the lowest profile out of all of the 90 degree steel cannulas. I hear the muffin top or love handle is a great place for the Rapid D.
For sledding use a skin for pump protection from bumps. I live in Canada and the hospitals have said, for the cold weather, the insulin in the pump should be fine if the pump is under a jacket against your body.
I have no experience with sweating yet although the Orbit micros get stickier the more you sweat because the tape is activated by heat. This would be good if you don’t catch it on anything due to it’s higher profile.
My son’s 11 and on the Ping. We use the inset 90 6 mm. When he started he wanted his infusion set only on his belly. They got pulled out numerous times by the dog jumping on him, wrestling with brother, jumping on trampoline, etc. Now we do them all on his upper booty and haven’t had a single one come out. We use IV Prep before each site to help them stick on. We don’t have any extreme weather where we live but when swimming for long periods of time (all day at the water park) we use tegaderm or IV3000 over the site.
So far Camden has worn his pump for all activities but is not on a team sport. He plays a lot of basketball and hasn’t had any problems with tubing (yet).
I can speak to cold temperatures as we live in and are active outdoors in -30 C. My daughter wears her snowpants/ski pants and clips the pump to her snowpants and tucks the tubing into her snowpants. Then she wears her jacket over top of the pump. A friend of mine who wears a pump here just keeps it in his ski pants pocket and has never had a problem.
As far as infusion sets, my daughter (10 years), uses Cleo 90 6mm 24cm tubing. We have found the tubing superior to the inset 90s and the canullas on the Cleo’s have yet to kink which is a problem we had with the inset’s as well. The sets don’t stick as well as they could unless we use skin-tac as a prep which I get online from a pharmacy in Ontario. It works great in heat, and after days of swimming.
One other thing. Make sure to keep blood glucose test kits warm in winter (inside jacket pocket) as they don’t work well as you get closer to freezing. You just get all these error msgs that confuse you but really the kit just needs to be warmed up.
That is great. Thank you so much. I am starting to get a little confused over the infusion sets but once we get going I guess we will have to see what works for us. I am glad to know some more options outside of the 90 inset II and the 30’s. I will call Animus this week and ask them to send the Cleo 90 as well.
Hi from Canada! My son is 6. He has had a Ping since last winter. About cold weather: You will love the remote control function when your son is wearing a snowsuit. I find though that like all meters we’ve had, the display on the Ping meter tends to fade away temporarily in extreme cold (not the pump, have never had any issues with it). We just keep it in an inside coat pocket, close to the body, and are as quick as possible when we take it out.
As for insets: We simply use a Comfort Short 60 6mm. It’s never come out. We’ve never had to use Skin Prep or Tack. Just a dollop of Emla 30 minutes before each site change.
You can’t get the Cleo’s from Animas as they only sell ‘their’ infusion sets. Since you’re from Ontario you can order from Diabetesexpress.ca! You can get the Cleo’s http://www.diabetesexpress.ca/index.php/cPath/37_60_93 (you can keep using the Animas cartridges with these) and the skin tac if you want to try it: http://www.diabetesexpress.ca/product_info.php/cPath/39/products_id…. I also bought an adhesive remover from here but my daughter just peels the infusion sets off without it. Have you ordered a fun pump skin for your son from the Animas site? Makes the pump look cool.
Cheers.