I originally joined and posted because of pod failures, but I wanted to share some successes. My daughter is 10, diagnosed last January. Just old and experienced enough to handle most things pretty well, but just young and inexperienced to cause some worry, too.
Especially for parents are considering moving from MDI to a pump, here have been some of the benefits:
1) Reverse corrections - She can bolus at school and I don't worry as much about her over-dosing. (If she's on the low side, say 70, she can enter the carbs she's about to eat, and the pump will automatically reduce the suggested insulin so that she comes up to 100 after she eats).
2) Play dates - We have one friend who thinks she understands diabetes but does not. She's always trying to get my daughter to snack on "healthy" food. It was always a problem on MDI - the other day she snacked and bolused all afternoon and stayed in range.
3) Icecream at the endos - We live 2 hours from the endo, and my daughter always wants an icecream they sell in the hospital cafe. She eats it, sits in the car for 2 hours, and goes high. With the pump, we've started extended boluses and additional insulin and it's better.
4) Water -- We've gone river tubing and on the log ride at the amusement park without worrying about the pod. Disconnecting just wouldn't work well -- it's not like she says, "I will swim for one hour and then reconnect for awhile". She's 10!
5) Illness - She was sick for a week w high bg, and it was a lot easier and safer to give extra insulin.
6) Integrated meter/insulin delivery log. Can't tell you how many time we've spent dinner reconstructing what blood sugar reading happened when and how many units she dosed for lunch. Even with a pump without an associated meter, I think we'd be there at dinner comparing the pump data to the meter data to reconstruct her day.
7) No more health room at lunch -- Now my daughter can eat a snack and lunch without first going to the health room to give a shot and dispose of the needle.
8) Outdoor school -- is tomorrow, and I will worry a lot less about their "night hike" and so forth with a lower basal -- and we'll be able to reset the basal for the long drive home without waiting for lantus time at night.
9) BG control -- Even with a month of pod failures and associated very high BGs, her A1c was in range for age (7.2) -- It is easier to stay in range in general, and to aggressively treat high BGs when the pods fail or she's sick.
10) Different target rates -- We target 100 during the day and 120 overnight. We did this with MDI, but the pump does the math for us.
Some of these would have been benefits of a tubed pump over MDI, and some are unique to Omnipod. Either way, there are enough benefits for us to keep trying to work through our issues.