My daughter was diagnosed on 09/09/09. She is eight years old. She is taking insulin shots. She says that she is not ready for the pump and doesn’t at all like the pen. She gives her own shots and is doing extremely well. We have a wonderful team of doctors.
My question is…
The Dr. says that she is still in the “honeymoon” phase. I know basically what this means, but could this explain away the lows? The doctors want her numbers to be between 80 and 150. She has met that mark at every meal time and bed time in the last two weeks. Last night, she was 110 at dinner time and 115 at bedtime. About an hour after bedtime, she came into the living room and was walking unsteady and had a strange look on her face. Told her to check her sugar and it was 42. Treated the low and she went up to 67 after 15 minutes. Treated again and she was up to 162. I let her go back to sleep but checked again at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. She was between range both times. This morning her numbers are back to what they have been. Could this just be a fluke or is this a normal occurance during the honeymoon phase?
Tanya,
My daughter just turned 12 and was diagnosed on 9/30/09. Over the last two weeks, we have been fighting the low side as well. We are in fairly constant contact with her endo and her daily lantus has been dropped twice as well as the factor used for the humalog. She was low enough yesterday that we only covered one meal. We will talk with the endo this afternoon to see if we should reduce once again. At this time, we are waking her every morning around 2 to check levels.
Larry
Thanks…
Becky has always been on the high side so the one really low had me spooked. I am glad to know that I am not the only parent waking up my child at 2 in the morning.
My son is 8 years old and was diagnosed with Type 1 three years ago. The “honeymoon” phase lasted about a year or more for him. During this phase you will find there will be times that she will require hardly any insulin and you think maybe she is getting better or was misdiagnosed. That is part of the honeymoon phase. Once she is out of that phase, it is a little easier to manage. Nic still has unexplained highs and lows. That is just part of Type 1 diabetes. We may have a day of highs and no matter what we do, he is just high. He will wake up the next day back to normal. In about 6 months to a year from now, you will be much more comfortable with it and so will she. Let me just say it will be harder you dealing with her diabetes than it will be for her.
My daughter was diagnosed a year ago September and we are still battling nighttime lows. The “honeymoon” messes with BG quite a bit because her body sporadically kicks in more of its own insulin and combined with the insulin she is taking can attribute to lows. I think she is finally coming out of the honeymoon period now and, for her, so many variables seem to cause her BG fluctuations. She is very sensitive to lots of activity (soccer & just running around outside will cause her to drop 4-10 hours afterwards), different meals effect her BG quite differently ( we have discovered that low fat higher carb meals of pasta cause her to drop a lot more easily, while steak & veggies can elevate her). Everyone responds differently to activity, meals, and insulin sensitivity so we have not yet found the magic answer. It just takes lots of hard work and contact with your endo team to make the adjustments needed.
Two nights ago my daughter went to bed with a BG of 130. I have no idea what made me recheck it only 20 minutes later, other than I was getting ready for bed and it nagged at me to recheck just to be sure. It was not a soccer night or a day of a lot of activity, but I’m glad my instincts told me to retest as she had dropped to 53. I have no idea what caused the drop, but she came up to 104 then dropped again to 68 a half hour later. Of course all the juice spiked her to 200 by breakfast time. Her lows have been scary (36, 44, 50’s), but unless she is sleeping, she has been able to tell me that she felt a drop. Sometimes she feels it in the 70’s, but often it is when she is in the 60’s or lower. For my daughter I have noticed tell tale signs of highs/lows… when she is low her eyes become very dull (look dry) and her skin goes pale to gray and when she is high her eyes sparkle like crazy and she becomes very hyper acting or agitated. These cues have even helped her siblings to recognize when something isn’t quite right with her.
For us, the honeymoon phase has been very frustrating and I am looking forward to the day when we can get good control. We get my daughter’s pump tomorrow and start pumping next Tuesday so I really hope that will help with the huge fluctuations in her BG.
This site is a great place for information and I’m so glad I have found the support of so many caring people. Good luck to you and your daughter in getting the lows regulated. Some day we will all be able to sleep through the night again:-)
Olivia,
What kind of pump will your daughter be using?
I have heard of several, but not sure which would be best. Becky is scared of something with tubes that could get yanked out of her. The Ompipod doesn’t have tubes, but don’t know if that is a good option. More questions and more decisions. More “ifs”. Gotta love it.
We went with the Omnipod because it was that or nothing for my daughter. She is 11 and refused to have tubes. She really doesn’t seem to mind the daily injections, but we are having a hard time getting her BG under control (she is almost always high or low) and has rarely been on target since the first couple of months or so after diagnosis when her numbers were pretty good.
I have heard that all of the pumps have pros and cons and all perform the same basic function so it’s a matter of personal preference. If you are interested in the pod, there is a forum for Omnipod users on this site which has been very helpful to me. One of the ladies on the site,Lorraine, has a young son, Caleb, who has been on the pod for a few years and she is a good source of information and has even posted videos of him changing the pod. The link is: http://tudiabetes.com/video/pod-change-omnipod
There are several other videos of Caleb as well, including going on a continuous glucose monitor (CGM).
Thanks. I will check into that.
Olivia - you make me smile to have Caleb and his videos referenced - thank you!
Our honeymoon experience at the beginning resulted in Caleb’s insulin dosing dropping dramatically within the first few weeks of diagnosis and he was ultimately using less than two units per day just before he started pumping.
As others have said, the honeymoon can be very unpredictable. I believe Caleb’s lasted almost two years, although he took “steps” out the honeymoon in stages, so it was a gradual process. I wrote more about our experience here: Honeymoon Schmoneymoon.
Although I write how pumping posed it’s struggles, I still think it was a better alternative to injections for Caleb because we were able to tailor his basal program to deal with periods of highs that long acting insulins could not reach without resulting in an overnight low.
My son is 10 and was diagnosed in July 2009. He had his first low (in the 40s) while in the hospital. He’s been low at least once a day since. Sometimes 4+ times a day. He was obviously in his honeymoon period and is now on his way out. We haven’t had the same dosage of insulin for more than a few days in the 3 months he’s had diabetes. Every few days, we’re having to change it to match his changing body. I was scared to death of the lows at first. I was scared and didn’t want to send him back to school this year. The biggest thing I’ve realized is how well we can learn to deal with things. The more lows he had (and recognized), the more comfortable I felt. You start to realize how aware your child is of their own body and how capable they are of taking care of themselves. My son’s never had a low he didn’t feel and was able to tell me about. He’s gotten down to the low 30s and can’t test his own blood because he’s shaky or weak feeling. He’s able to judge about how low he is because of it. Sometimes he knows he’s extra low and takes his carbs first, then tests. It’s pretty amazing to think of how capable children can be. Of course the idea of something terrible happening is very scary, but you’ll realize that you can probably avoid that situation. Always have fast-carbs in your child’s pocket, your purse, car, etc.
Also, his Dr. doesn’t want him under 130 at bedtime or his 2am check (just in case). I’ve been up at 2 to test him every night since he was diagnosed. I jokingly (not really) tell his Dr. I’ll do it until he’s married and his wife can take over. 
Hello from Finland!
Our son (diagnosted 4 years ago) hasn´t that honeymoon ´cos he has so deep with ketoes that all kind of his body own insulinsystem was dead. Still beging with diabetes was running high or low, up and down and doctor says that isn´t honeymoon but “start over always difficult” …
those lows with you doughter can be honeymoon, of course. sometimes those low what cannot explain why those comes can be first signs about some kind illness, influens or stomachsickness and etc, usual childrens sicknesses.
(my english isn´t really good but hope you will understand…)
our son has last week several high and couple of low and i was rather sure that some kind of “sickness” is coming…well, this morning he wake up and have high fever and high blodsugars - still sleeping…
I wish your son a speedy recovery!!
I hope your son feels better soon.
Thanks <3
Today we visit doctor at hospital diabetespoliklinic and ears, etc were OK, says that rest and rest , to the school can go when feel is allright and one day is spent home without fever.
So, just waiting…amd situation looks kind “normal”, no panic.
Our doughter is sleeping her fever also and just minute ago older boy feels bad and - fever but he also coff quite hard last night and now. Whole family may get that and so one girl and I and my husband are in good condition - even now…tomorrow maybe is different feelings but now must be happy =)
this is autums second this kind of sickknes which fell down several students and teachers at school etc and we had just bad luck again, if can say like this.
Positive thinking…positive thinking…
Thanks to you also <3 please read what I just replyed to Lorraine above this message.
It’s all about attitude!!!
Keep up your positive thoughts. Wish I was there to help. I don’t seem to ever get sick even when everyone around me feels awful. You will get through this with flying colors.
They eventually sleep through a BG check in the middle of the night and you’ll only need to wake them if you need to treat a low.
Cheryl
We don’t even wake to treat a low anymore - he can drink a whole juice box in his sleep. : )
Check sugar, munch sugar tabs, drink juice boxes, brush teeth, even change Pods - all while fast asleep.
Haha. Do you really brush his teeth after treating a low? I never thought of that.