My daughter turned 11 Thursday and we went to the Endo Tuesday and her A1C is 6.5. So things have gotten better! We still have our ups and downs and she still fibs numbers occasionally especially when she gets busy and forgets to check. We were approved for the CGM but she saw the needle and the first thing she said was NO WAY. She refuses to go to the training and she refuses to even try it. We do the EMLA cream for her infusion set site. She actually said “The cream is not going to go inside my body where that needle goes!” And she is absolutely correct. Why in the world is medtronic only making one needles size whether you are 50 pounds or 500 lbs. That is absurd!
Ive had some of the same problems… We let our 12 yr old son have some freedom also and I have caught him in a few lies about checking his BS and throwing out random #s in the past. I agree lies are lies and for that he is punished. Hes sneaks snacks with out giving insulin thinking its not enough carbs to make a diff. We have sat down and had many talks about it, He is now becoming a big advocate for a cure for Diabetes and I think after the went to Diabetes camp this past summer it really opened his eyes alot about taking care of himself. Camp was the best thing that happened to him! Have You looked into and camps in you area? I agree with Tonyia. For them to realize that ingoring is not going to make it go away. and puberty is a roller coaster ride that does not end soon enough for a diabetic teen!
Yes my daughter has been to camp 3 years in a row. It has been great. We shall see how things go she just received her first big consequence for calling in her numbers 3 times the other day while at gymnastics practice and she hadn’t check any of those times. No media or sleepovers for 2 weeks. I hope she gets the point.
Well my daughter is a little younger. I am hoping to get some early advice to prevent lots of this from happening. She is almost 8 and has just begun wanting to do playdates afterschool and on weekends without me around. So far I have entrusted the parents to help with managing her D - but as they get older - the parents are not always around - I mean they will be home in the house - but kids take a bag of chips up to thier rooms and are not always doing activities right under the parents nose. KWIM? So I have started to worry about when she starts he pump and how these play dates will affect her D management. I know that when she is with friends - the last thing she wants to think about is her D - but it the 1st thing I am thinking about when she is not with me.
Sorry no advice . . .but the thread has given me lots to think about! 
Well, she received her first consequence she was at gymnastics and called 3 times during 4 hour practice at the times specified and reported the numbers which were all around 100 to 130. She got home and it turns out had not checked even once for all those times she called and she had to have eaten something because she was 400 when she got home. So she has been grounded from all media for 2 weeks and no sleepovers for two weeks (since we wouldn’t be able to control the media issue if she went on a sleepover). She is clearly upset and I think she realizes we mean business. We let her know the consequences are not because of the diabetes and not checking but because she lied – three times. While the not checking her BG bothers me, the lying bothers me even more. So we will see what happens. We told her if this doesn’t work then we will go back to one her parents being everywhere she goes for awhile and having others-- parents, coaches, teachers verifying numbers to us directly again. We shall see what happens.
Well, my son is turning 14 tomorrow. He has had Type I for 3 1/2 years. Up until about 4 months ago, he has been so good about testing and correcting. HE is very involved in sports and is quite a good athlete. He gives me a hard time about checking before a game and checking during and after. This started about 4 months ago. We were telling him he had to check after a game and he said “this isn’t fun anymore”. I was devestated. i told him “I know”. It is so much for them to handle. He is being resistive. He told me he makes up numbers at the nurses office !!! It is so scary. Lately, I have been telling him about all of the dangers and bad things that can happen to him. I really don’t think that he wants to take the time or energy to check. It is so scary, but I do not think it is unusual!!! I am hoping that his attitude will change - he was so good!!! I think we just have to keep on top of them. I tell him that I will go everywhere with him again if I need to - and I would!!! It is not an easy time all around!! They don’t want to be different. I wish we had a magic wand to make them compliant!!! Nancy
I have no advice to offer, just sympathy/empathy. My daughter with diabetes is only 6 and so far has been an absolute rock star in adjusting to having diabetes. Her older brother (without diabetes) is 13. I dread facing the physical/emotional challenges of managing diabetes combined with the hormone stew and social pressures of adolescence. Good luck and I think, as a parent, punishment for lying is the right approach–but my heart goes out to all the kids who are struggling.
Finding a role model that works with your kids helps. For example, my daughter is 8 and loves the jonas brothers, Nick Jonas is Diabetic…so i am always giving her articles, interviews, etc that has to do with him and diabetes…how he manages and so on…she feels that if he can do it and be famous and open about it, so can she. She is so proud to tell her friends that she has a “bond” with Nick Jonas. As for your son, I know there are quite a few big time sports guys that have it. I don’t remember the names, but I know there is one big time football player…maybe if you could look the guy up, that would help your son. Give him a role model that can relate to him personally. Just a thought!!
Here is one website you can check out…
http://www.kidzworld.com/article/10515-celebrities-with-diabetes
Jay Cutler, quarterback for the Denver Broncos, just traded to the chicago bears is type 1, diagnosed last year. has very tight control of his numbers, checks frequently during games, in order to play football, he has to, he goes around speaking to kids…could use that athletic route , he’s a great role model!!!
He has an ominpod.
I let my daughter check anywhere, though we are new, she was just diagnosed feb 5, she’s 11, we got the pump april 13. she is so far responsible and she checks wherever she is. but different teachers have offered to let her check in all kids of spots. she doesn’t like to check in the nurse because it takes too long and is disruptive. she texts me her bg numbers. they let her have a phone in school, contrary to the rules. I don’t know if that helps. she could check in the bathroom, a high school girls’ mom told me she checks in her locker.
one day we’ll have light refraction technology to check and it will be painless and continuous and non invasive, yeah!
Yes my daughter is a Nick fan as well. We actually won tickets to see his concert and she got to have her picture taken with him.
My niece who is now 12 tried the MiniMed cgms and she was quite a good sport about it. Initially… She has a high pain tolerance. We did use EMLA, but once the EMLA wore off, she would sometimes have pain. The last time we used it the pain was quite severe (Sis must have hit a nerve on insertion.) Now my niece is wearing her Minimed pump but with the Dexcom 7 plus cgms. Yes, she does have to carry around an extra receiver, but Dexcom insertion feels like inserting a pump site to her. We did use EMLA the first time. She no longer numbs the site. Dexcom also fits into her lifestyle. Minimed cgms is a PITA. Who wants to stop on Day 3, take off the sensor, recharge it and take it off on Day 6 (or go through the other procedure to get more time out of it?) Sensor may need to be recharged in the middle of Day 3. Dexcom lasts a full 7 days AND if you want to try to get more time out of it, you restart it without removing the transmitter. You just leave it where it is and restart via the Receiver (Dexcom does not sanction this, but we have gotten 9 or 10 days out of most of our sensors so far). IMO Dexcom is a far, far superior device. Minimed has promised (and failed) to reduce the size of that huge introducer needle and no, we are NOT putting that thing into her again unless Minimed improves their product. She can put the Dexcom Receiver in her purse when out and about. At home she will either wear it on her waist or put it somewhere near her. Minimed is NOT your daughter’s only option, whether or not she wears the Minimed pump.
I was told that the Dexcom needle and inner tubing is longer than the minimed cgm. Is that not true? I don’t know if with our insurance company if we can return the minimed and ask for the dexcom or not. I will call them tomorrow. What I didn’t like about the dexcom was having the extra equipment as my child has a hard enough time keeping track of her meter and poker and strips. With the dexcom is there still the possibility of the 20 point difference and needing to still check the fingers? I sure do wish they would come up with a pump/CGM combo for kids. thanks for the info on the dexcom
Who told you this? A Minimed Rep, LOL!!! The Dexcom introducer needle is 26 gauge. Minimed introducer needle is 30 gauge. Dexcom has reduced the size of their introducer needle twice in order to make it more comfortable for insertion, even though they didn’t have FDA approval at the time to use on pediatric patients as Minimed has. We have United. If you have approval for use of the cgms, you can usually switch. Of course Minimed would have to reimburse you or allow you to return their cgms. My sister chose the Minimed cgms, initially, so my niece would not have to carry the extra receiver. She loses cell phones all the time. And she did wear the Mimimed cgms about two months, with varying degrees of comfort. Often she would be sore after EMLA wore off. And more than once we had to pull sensor immediately after EMLA wore off. Last time she wore it, Sis must have hit a nerve. Neither Sis nor my niece wanted to insert another sensor after that. We waited and waited for Minimed to reduce the size of their needle, as promised. One year later, we just got the Dexcom Plus. My sister is so much happier with the insertion process. My niece wore EMLA the first time; now she does not want to bother using EMLA; says it’s not much worse than site change for the pump. To be fair, we are not using the arm for the sensor this time, but the upper tush area. There can still be a 20 percent difference between Dex and fingerstick. That is not twenty points. It would be 20 points if she is in the 100s, and 40 points if she is in the 200s, 60 or 70 points if she is 300. I have read parents who dose off the cgms readings on CWD forums. We were much inspired, read up on all the theories. In reality, we can NEVER do that. There are discrepancies. The Dexcom sensor wire that is left in the body after the introducer needle is pulled out is as fine almost as two strands of hair. It is a wire though. I love, love love the fact that you put the Dex on and it is good for seven days. Minimed’s product and the procedure you have to go through to restart (CAREFULLY take transmitter off the body without disturbing anyting, recharging and putting it back on) does not suit our lifestyle. Big PITA. If we want to restart Dex, we can leave it right where it is and try to restart from the Receiver. We do this because we like to get about 9 or 10 days out of it. Dex reads well for ten days for us. Dexcom will communicate with the Animas pump sometime early next year, so they say. We do prefer the Minimed pump to the Animas pump (Animas was our first pump). If she loses the receivers all the time, I guess we will have to go with Animas. Animas Ping Remote is also a glucometer using One Touch strips. It is hard to get a straight answer regarding ease of insertion from endos or other parents. They all say they are almost the same. Dexcom and Minimed insertion is NOT the same. Dexcom is much, much, MUCH more pain-free. P.S. If you DO have to continue with Minimed sensor, use EMLA cream, leave on for a good hour to numb and use an area with a lot of fat, like the tush. You can then experiment further from there. When using arm, a lot of parents use a shallower insertion, but Minimed Rep told us not to do that. I believe she was wrong as the first thing the Dexcom Rep told us was to use a shallower insertion when using the arms. Perhaps that was our main problem. Plenty of parents use Minimed without a problem. We never let my niece see the introducer needle. She has no idea how large it was. Likewise, she can’t really see the Dex needle as it is covered. I think part of the problem is that your daughter has seen the size of the needle. Probably should have just numbed the area and inserted such that she could not see it. Don’t blame her for being freaked out; My sister is an R.N. and she was freaked out at the size of it. More than that, she was angry that Minimed did not make reducing the size of that needle TOP priority as they have a lot of Pedi patients using the Miinimed.
P.S. One other thing regarding frequency of finger-sticks. We still check BS quite a lot. We will not dose with insulin without a finger-stick. That could prove to be dangerous. We have treated lows without checking with a fingerstick first (usually okay, but we have had some mistakes doing this). We are now able to eliminate the two hour post-prandial fingersticks and use the Dex for that. We want to start with Apidra to reduce the DIA of her bolus insulin. Once we have switched and perfected everything, I think we will be able to eliminate even more sticks. Eliminating fingersticks is not top priority; gaining better control is, but we would love to eliminate more of the sticks. We have already gotten rid of some of them.