My 16-year-old just got diagnosed five days ago. She has finally getting BG’s in the mid 100’s. I am wondering do any of you on a nightly routine of checking BG, like in the middle of the night?
Hi Amy, so sorry that you daughter has been diagnosed. We are into this just over a year. My son is now 7 and we do midnight checks every night, if he is low at midnight, we treat and then we check again at 3 am. Sometimes we check more often, when he is sick, when he has had a very active day of playing outside, hockey practice, swim lessons, etc. I just feel better at night when I check, I don’t think I could sleep otherwise. I guess it’s too early for her to be waking up if she is low or has she had any lows yet? My son has only woke twice because he was low, but we’ve caught many lows by checking him at midnight. What does your team say to do? Follow your gut instinct is my best advice. Feel free to add me as a friend if you need to chat. We are still on injections, we do three a day, started out at 2 a day. Hoping to move to a pump this summer, I won’t lie and say it’s been easy but it does become routine. Good luck. Oh, my name is Maureen Israel.
Depending on where everyone’s numbers are before bed, we may or may not check. We have two that were diagnosed a year apart. Our endo’s rule is that a 2 am check needs to be made if: they were low during the day, they were unusually active earlier in the evening, or if they are sick. I will check if we’ve had a hard to count dinner or if I sense something is off (you will develop this too!) It all seems to work pretty well. Our older son has started training for track, and with the increased activity we are definitely seeing more lows.
Hang in there! Patti
Mia,
Welcome to a community that understands what the last few days has been like for you, your daughter and family. We are here to help and support. My 13 year old daughter was dx on 9/30/09.
For the first few weeks, we would wake her up one or two times every night. Eventually, as the long acting insulin gets refined, we were able to make a judgement based on the evening readings and activities An example was last night. Our daughter is an avid tennis player. After tennis last night, she hit a low of 48 a couple of hours later so we checked several times last night.
It is so overwhelming at first,but you and your daughter will get to know how her body reacts to different circumstances and adjust accordingly. Until then a nightly routine is best. Hopefully you have a good endo or CDE to discuss with and the community here is ready to help as well. We probably check at least once during the night 70% of the night. Some of this is due to the 3 day cycle of pump changes and we always check BG a few hours after a new insertion site.
Larry
Mia…sorry to hear about your daughter. My son is 12 and was diagnosed in early October. We did routine night checks for probably the first 2 weeks and now only do it if we have highs or lows during the day, or if he is sick or now because basketball practice has started up we check on the nights he had practice. Then if his insulin gets changed we tend to check then as well to make sure the change didnt effect his nighttime.
This group is so helpful.
What state are you located in?
Mia,
Sorry about your daughter. My son was diagnosed on June 10, 2010 he was 10 years old. In the beginning we checked through the night every 3 hours and then when he started pumping we did the same. Now we check at night if we have changed his dose, he has been sick, stressed, active or he ate something later at night with a lot of carbs (requiring his to take a lot of insulin).
Hugs
Amber in Missouri
Mia;
My grandchild’s name is Mia too and she is 35 months old…she was diagnosed last july. Although I don’t live with them, my daughter keep me informed of everything and I travel as often as I can to be with them. My baby is now on the pump, since three weeks ago. I know my daughter used to check her in the midnights in the beginning and depending of the results in the early am hours too. Now with the pump she was checking two or three times during midnights but her team told her she does not need to do it anymore. Now she check her before bedtime and if the numbers are fine as she knows already her BG reacts…she doesn’t check her until morning before bk.
We know is a very hard time when you receive a diagnosis and the time that comnes to adjust our lives to it but God has been with my daughter and with us to help us do what we have to and keep going, trying to live a normal and happy life.
I wish the same to you ,your daughter and your family.
Dont hesitate if you need to talk…Be Blessed! Tita
We did middle of the night checks initially (for the first several months) until we learned what our son’s ‘normal’ pattern was. He tends not to drop during the night, so now, I only do middle of the night checks when he is ill, if he has had a big exercise day or if his numbers are just running ‘wonky’ (highs and lows over and over that I cannot figure out).
Hang in there, the beginning can be a rollercoaster. It must be very hard for a 16 year old girl, with all of the changes T1D brings.
Thanks for info. She hasn’t had any lows yet. Her A1C was 12.1 so the Dr. said she has been running 300 and above for 3 mos. Scary! Cause anything could of happened. So I guess I will play the waiting game like Y’all and just judge for myself. The Dr.'s Team wants me to check 4 times aday but we are doing more than that because this is so new to us. She has gotten really good at doing it all herself, I guess from watching me (I am Type 2).
Thanks I am in Missouri.
I would agree with you that 4 times per day is not nearly enough, especially when you are trying to get a handle on her I/C ratio, correction factors, basal amounts, etc.
Gosh I’m feeling like I don’t check enough. My 12 year old was dx’d in Oct 2010. We checked at 3am for the first two weeks and haven’t checked since… His number are really good 75-125 most of the time, but he does have an occasional low and plays sports which can make him go low. He often has a high carb meal before bed and we only done him 1/2 at that time. So if his targe is 125 and his blood sugar is about 125, he may have a 60 carb snack and take a 2 unit shot (instead of 4). He did wear a CGM for a week as part of a study (DEFEND-2, look it up they are probably still recruiting) so we were able to see that he was stable at night (at least that week). I guess I should be more careful on days he plays sports.
I agree, what works for one diabetic isnt going to always work for another. You know your child better then anyone else. My son tests generally 5 times a day. Breakfast, lunch, after school, dinner and bedtime. On days he plays sports or is more active then most days, we will have him test more. The afterschool testing is not necessary, it is something we ourselves felt put us at ease. When my son runs low or high on a particular day, we generally will test during the night just as a precaution. His 3 month checkup his AIC was 6.7. So I think for us, what we are doing is working well.
Seems like there’s a wide range of responses to your question… here’s mine:
My son is 5-years-old and was diagnosed when he was 3.5 I check his BG every night. The first check is always 3.5 to 4 hours after his last meal of the night… so sometimes that’s 10 or 11pm, sometimes it’s 1am. If the first check is “good” (above 120 but below 200) then I feel like he won’t go high or low during the night and I know I can trust his basal to keep him even because it’s dialed-in pretty well right now (he pumps)… then I can sleep without another test.
If he’s below 120 at 10 or 11pm then I won’t give him anything but I’ll set an alarm and check again in 3-4 hours just to make sure he’s not going low. Sometimes I’ll catch him at 70 when I do this which scares me… so that’s why I continue to do it.
If he’s above 200 then I’m going to dose him for his BG right then and check again in 2-3 hours to make sure the pump site hasn’t gone bad.
If he’s above 300 - well - all bets are off. Then I’m going to sit around for a while and try to figure-out why he’s high… did I screw up his dinner dose? Did he eat something else that I didn’t know about? If I can’t figure it out… it’s set change time… and of course then I’m going to check him again later in the night. If I CAN figure it out then I’ll dose him for the high and again… check him again later.
So the straight answer is: Yes, I always check my son at least once a night… and probably 2-4 times a week it works-out to being twice a night.
By the time my son is 16 I expect that he’ll be mostly managing his own care BUT there’s always that chance of a nighttime low that he won’t wake up from (VERY SCARY)… particularly with teenage hormones raging on and off. You might think about a CGM with a loud alarm. We don’t have one for our 5-year-old… but I might get one when he’s older.
so sorry, in the beginning, yes its agood idea to check at night, eventually your endo will let u know when the nite reading can stop. My daughter was diagnosed at 12yr, almost 15 soon, good luck, teenage years and diabetes is hard. My daughter has also always felt her night time lows, with a weird stomach sensation, even while sleeping, but i know some people who don’t, so as parents we think about all the time.
Thank you everyone for letting me know. This is so much to take in. Feel like pulling my hair out. She had good numbers all day yesterday and this morning was 106, this evening they were higher. Her bedtime was 242. Went over everything she ate. I don’t like the highs. Told her I was checking at midnight. She is 16 and handling this all well. Probably just humoring a freaked out momma. This is just day 6 with her on meds. The Dr. raised it to three more units this morning, I kept her home from school cause here I was worried about lows and she hasn’t had to many. If its below 200 I am one happy camper! This crap just freaks me out and all I want to do is cry…
It is an overwhelming thing to deal with, especially at the beginning - so much to remember! You both will get the hang of it, much sooner than you think. You probably won’t see too many lows right now, which is pretty normal.
Thank you so much. I was kinda of thinking there wasn’t going to lows right away. Here wake up was 101.
*Also she is 16, any of you with girls, if so when their monthly is getting ready to start is there a change in BG?
The first 2 weeks after my son was diagnosed we continued to see highs. It takes awhile for the insulin to stabilize.
When you say the doctor raised her three more units what do you mean? Is this her long acting insulin you are talking about?
I understand the crying. As much as I hate to admit it, my doctor had to prescribe me xanax after my son was diagnosed. I sat home all day alone and all I did was cry. Our lives were kidnapped by diabetes. Everyone kept telling me that it would get better and it was hard to imagine how it could. But you know what? It is better because we now have a new normal and it doesnt all seem so confusing. On the occasions my son is low, I dont panic anymore. We know what to do and handle it accordingly.
I know as things move forward things change, but right now, we are not even suppose to treat a 242. So while it seems high, its not a serious high. When we first started we corrected for every 50 over 150. Our last appointment that was changed to every 100 over 150.
Do you have anyone other then your doctor, nurses etc., that you can talk to? I know having 2 friends with kids who also have diabetes was a great help to me. If you don’t have anyone like that, email me…I will gladly give you my phone number and you can call me ANYTIME you need to talk. My email is Loves2beamommy@aol.com.
I dont have a girl, but based on what the secretary at my sons school says, they will have high readings at this time.