My 8 year old daughter was diagnosed 2 days ago as Type 1. I have been Type 1 for 26 years and am currently on a Minimed 522 but just left the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes and there was an Omnipod booth that we visited. Anyone have a youngster on the OmniPod? It sure seemed like a better mousetrap looking at it today. I’m not sure why I’m on the 522 now. Considering a wholesale switch for me and a migration from shots now for my 8 year - both to the Omnipod. Any consideration or advice would be most appreciated…Thank you.
Hi John,
I am sorry to hear about your daughter. My daughter was diagnosed almost a year ago when she was 5 years old. She is now on the Pod for almost 2 months. The only 2 challenges we face are deciding on the location to place the pod. My daughter has a little frame and the only places she likes to put the Pods are on her stomach and her outer legs. The second challenge is about insuring the Pod stays stuck to her throughout the 3 day period. Yesterday, I had to rush to school to provide adhesive tape to keep the Pod in place. We are looking at possibly using medical adhesives like SkinTac and Mastisol.
I would say overall our experience with Insulet has very been positive but again, we are very new at pumping and do have any experiecen with other insulin pump vendors
Thanks Carl.
Funny thing is I tried the sample Pod at the JDRF walk and it was on my stomach. I was worried to pull it off since I had hair in that area. But it didn’t hurt - which actually worried me a bit. So your comment on the Pod staying stuck seems to be a recurring concern I have heard before. Are the 2 medical adhesives you mention tapes or a sticky glue, etc?
My daughter is thin too so sounds like we will continue to have some of the same requirements for the pump.
John-
Hello! I am sorry to hear about your daughter. The good thing is you know diabetes and you can help your daughter overcome her fears. I have been Podding for almost 6 months. I love it! I would tell you it’s flawless but it’s not. I have had a few pod’s go bad but I haven’t ended up in the Hospital or anything. There is a member in our community and her son is an Onmipod user. I know you said your are thinking about the Omnipod but here is a list of tips and tricks Susan posted about the Omnipod. It may answer a few questions for you. I have used a few of her tips to help me.
If you have any questions keep posting and we’ll answer.
Hi John,
I am sorry to hear about your daughter. My 11 year old son was dx’d 10/31/07 and has been on the pod for 3-1/2 months. It isn’t flawless, but what pump is. We love the Omnipod. He is 82 lbs and he prefers to wear it on his arm or stomach. It took a week or two for him to get used to wearing it. He is very active and I think it’s great that he doesn’t have to deal with the tubing on a regular pump. We haven’t had any pod failures yet. It really isn’t a problem to keep it on once you get your technique for putting it on down. We live in Florida and even when he is running around outside sweating the adhesive doesn’t come off his skin. The problem we have had the most was the pod coming off the adhesive. You can read my reply on Susan’s tips and tricks list to see how we have solved our few problems we had with it. Remember you have a 45 day money back guarantee with Omnipod, so I would try it and see if you like it. You can always return it and get a regular pump. My CDE is on the Animas ping which has a wireless control so you don’t have to take the pump out to bolus etc. She loves the convenience. That might be a good option if you decided you didn’t like the Omnipod. Hope this helps.
Hi John -
Sorry to hear about your daughter’s diagnosis. It’s never an easy road dealing with a child with Type 1. Our son was 15 months old when he was diagnosed and we were on MDI for 9 months. We went on the OmniPod in January 2008 - so it’s been 10 months for us. Will is now 2.9 months and I always smile when I hear of older kid’s parents concerns about where to put the pod. The best places for us are the top of his butt and the triceps. With the rotation of those four places (actually 8 because you can move the cannula around) we’ve had no problems with finding spots to put the pods. We chose the OmniPod because we knew at some point, he would grow (then it wouldn’t seem so big on his body) and also because he’s a very curious 2 year old and the thought of tubes and him pulling at them and the actual pump made me very nervous.
As with anything, I think it takes a little while before you get comfortable with any pump. We really like the ease of the OmniPod and feel it works great for our needs. That said, we have had issues with kinked cannulas and whatnot, but overall, customer support is really helpful and replaces pods that have any issues at all. They are 24 hours and get back to you within minutes after hours.
One interesting thing, we went to our first Family Camp this year, hosted by the Diabetes Society, and there were several folks that had young girls who were pumping and were very interested in our OmniPod (we were the only OmniPod users). Most were surprised about how small it was. I think that at some point, girls go through that stage where they want to be like everyone else. These young girls were really attracted to our pod because of how discreet it is. You might take that into consideration when making your choice. Also, if you are in CA and go to Stanford, they will let you try the OmniPod for a week. Also, OmniPod gives you a 45 day trial so that if you don’t like it, you can return it.
One bit of advice, it might be a good idea to do MDI for a little while so that she can really see the advantages to moving to a pump. However, if you do that, get the InjectEase, it’s a device that you put the syringe in and it makes it so the shot doesn’t hurt. I used this all the time when Will was on shots. It helped me to not see the syringe and it also helped him because he felt the plastic hitting his skin and not the needle (I tried it and it does work well…) I know that might sound weird, but I’ve heard that older kids sometimes are resistant to making the move to a pump. I know for us, the decision was fueled by not being able to get small doses of insulin out of a syringe.
Anyway, ask lots of questions, this group is great in getting answers and sharing!!
Take care,
Susan
mom to Carter, 6 years and William, 2.5 years (dx April 2007, OmniPod, Jan. 2008)
Welcome John! Our son was diagnosed in October 2005, he’s 11 now and has been pumping for about a year. Our whole family LOVES the pod. We too, have had some challenges along the way but would not change a thing. The customer service at omnipod is so great and helpful, they reassured us at every stage of learning which was wonderful. I would have to agree with some of the other parents that maybe starting with multiple daily injections would be beneficial, because you just cant imagine how much the pod free’s you up unless you know the alternative. Also, if there is ever a problem with the pump (and by this I mean any pump) your daughter will know exactly what to do, you make the temporary switch back to shots just to get through, and if she never has any experience taking the shots it could really be traumatic if all of the sudden she has to start injecting. Of course it helps that you’re diabetic and can give her advice…it would be cool for you to go on the pod together, bionic father/daughter team!
In closing, I’ll just tell you that our very active son is living life like any other boy his age. He swims, snowboards, wrestles with his little brother and plays football and baseball, all with his pod helping to keep him healthy with an A1C of 6.5. He says with his pod he really only feels like he has diabetes every 3 days, when he changes his set, thats it. We reccommend omnipod highly. Good Luck!! Peg
Peg what kind of football does your son play?Is it structured on a team or more of in the park so to speak.
I’m really interested in the pod for my son but football season is one of our biggest concerns.Thanks for sharing
your experiences with the Omnipod.
Hi Brad… Concerning sports and omnipod, our son plays in several “organized” sports…baseball, tennis, football and swimming. He is thrilled with the freedom he gets wearing the pod. When he’s doing a really high impact or contact sport we wrap his pod with this great 3m product that looks like an ace bandage, but sticks only to itself and also breathes…great stuff, we pick it up at the pharmacy near the bandaids. I cant remember the exact name off the top of my head but when it comes to me I’ll get back to you. But anyway, sports and the pod are great together. Like I said earlier, we have a VERY active kid and he would never part with his pod. Peg
Hi John!
I don’t have a child that’s diabetic but I would think the Omni Pod would be great for a child especially. We can’t be w/our kids all day long so the convienence of the Pod would be most beneficial in my opinion. The 6 shots a day were alot for this 40 year old to handle-I can’t imagine trying to get my child through that. The Pod is great because you fill it up and except for entering in your bolus your not constantly thinking about the fact that you have this disease. Every 3rd day you think about it for about 5 minutes. I love it. I think there will be cons to anything you were to do but w/a child I would think the Omni Pod would be the best choice.
Good luck and let us know what you decide!
My DH just started (you can read my other thread) and he has had some issues with it sticking - but he seems to like the arm placement. We will probably be ordering the OmniPod for our DD within the next month or so. There is a learning curve for my DH - but then he has never been on a pump before at all and was not interested at all in anything with tubing. So he is really really wanting to make this work. Insulet has had superiour cust. service so far and is helping us with all the “kinks” (no pun intended).
Ok I am now realizing that this is an older post - did you start your DD on the pump yet? Did you choose Omni Pod - or go with a tubed system?