My 6 year old daughter is using the omnipod and she just can’t keep it on. We have tried tegaderm, all sorts of tape, without luck. If the adhesive stays on, the pod tears away from the adhesive. It has been pretty frustrating. We have to use bards because she is allergic to the adhesive, but have tried mastisol and benzoin spray on top of the bards without help. Does anyone have anything that has worked to help keep the pods on?
Lisa
I think I saw someone from Tudiabetes said they had a son, maybe a little older than your daughter. He places his pod on his Arm and uses a torn sock to keep it on. I having experienced the pod not staying on. Have you called Insulet??
Insulet just told me to do the things I have already tried. We can’t do her arm, because it isn’t big enough yet. We are frustrated and are thinking of trying to get a different pump. Thanks for your reply.
One thing that I think makes a big difference is the soap you use. Our family has always used Dove (moisturizing) soap, but I too was having trouble with my son’s pods staying on. I changed him to Dial and/or Ivory plain soap, and it seemed to improve. We do still have some trouble on occasion, but for the most part that has helped. I am having trouble right now because he has started swimming a lot, and they are loosening up in the water. I agree this problem is frustrating, but I would not consider another pump due to the obvious restrictions. In addition, it is my understanding that you may have some of the same issues with another pump–because you still have to keep the set in place!
Someone once suggested Irish Spring to help adherence. We had problems when we used the IV prep. But since stopping that and just cleaning the area with alcohol, we don’t have a problem. As far as the pod tearing away - I think that used to happen when Caleb started, but since he’s more aware of it, it doesn’t happen.
Now that he’s in the pool every day I’m keeping a close watch - using IV3000 over it just to be sure it stays in place - seems to be working ok so far.
Hi Lisa, we have similar issues with our very active 10-year-old son, who also experiences skin irritation. We use Skin-Tac (which brushes on) underneath the pod, and then put Smith and Nephew Flexifit on top and blast it with the hair dryer. It isn’t perfect but it does seem to improve the duration. We check it several times a day, and put more on top if necessary. You can use a hole punch to create a hole you can place over the cannula window.
Our dermatologist suggested: moisturizing the sites thoroughly between uses, doing patch tests with different adhesives (put them all on at the same time and see what they look like after three days) and being very gentle when removing the tape to avoid damaging the skin further. These have helped with the skin issues.
We also found a little training helped; my son used to slide his back around on chairs, which really didn’t help adhesion issues. Good luck!
My son just started using the pod last week. The 1st two pods we put on started to come off but the cannula was still in. I used liquid bandaid to stick them back on and did not have to change them. Now when we change it I put a little liquid bandaid between the pod and the adhesive and they seem to stay on fine. The adhesive sticks to the skin fine (we use iv prep) it’s the adhesive ripping away from the pod that seems to be our problem.