any advice on what pump I should look at for my 6 year old daughter?
Both Animas Ping and Minimed Revel have increments of .025 now for basals. The Revel allows you to customise boluses even more now, allowing you to give less insulin for food. My niece has had both the Animas and Medtronic pumps. She will use either but we prefer the Minimed pump. Minimed pump holds more insulin than Animas (that will not be an issue for your six year old). Animas is more waterproof and we used her Animas pump over the summer on vacation. Animas has a very good remote you may like. They are both good.
Some children I know (here in Italy) have Animas.
My mom has the Animas, my husband has the Revel and my 6 year old daughter has the Omnipod and Dexcom. As a family we have (unfortunately) lots of experience with all three pumps. We all thoroughly agree there is no better choice than the Omnipod for a child. The freedom offered with tubeless pumping outweighs all the other features. Supposedly the smaller pods will be available in about 6 months which will make it even better. My husband is prettty married to Medtonic but will immediately switch to their patch pump when it’s available now that he sees how awesome tubeless is. I would be happy to answer any specific questions you may have.
My daughter is 6 as well and we tested out the omnipod one night. She was not happy with the way it felt or with the marks it left. We put the pump on her love handle, where do you normally put on her?
My niece is 2 and has the minimed revel it works great for her. we wanted the option of a CGM and she has it all in one. the dosing works great for her and has takin the beating of a life time from her running around and everything else. I found a friend on here who sent me a pattern for shirts that keep the pump out of her reach and it works great thanks to eric’s mom!! my sis and I both have the same pump as her and we like it. We never tried others so can’t tell you about those but with her being so young and us needed to know if she is low the all in one cgm/pump works great instead of her lugging around 2 seperate pieces.
Just to clarify - my husband has the Medtronic CGM and my daugter has the Dexcom CGM. She wears the Dexcom CGM in a fantastic little pouch around her waist called a SPIbelt. The Omnipod controller is also her meter so this pump/CGM combo doesn’t actually result in any more items to carry around than my husband with his Revel pump CGM combo which involves a separate meter. The Omnipod/Dexcom combo receiver/controller has bee submitted to the FDA for approval. When that happens we’ll have pump controller+meter+CGM all in one tubeless pump. The pod is the only thing on the child so there is no way for a little one to control insulin delivery. Like I said, we have both in use in our household and my daugter wouldn’t trade hers for the world. That being said, I totally agree that CGM is a critical component of the equation. I can’t imagine life without it as it offers my daughter independence and all of us a better night’s sleep. My understanding is the next generation Dexcom will transmit long range and I’m very hopeful that means as far as my bedroom - hearing an alarm at nigt in my room would/will be a dream come true!
My daugter is very thin so arms and legs are out until she grows a bit. We manage 10 separate sites on her butt (vertically up/down) and belly (horozontally). We’ve tried many sites over 8 months of pumping and these work best for her. She has a friend who frequently uses arms and legs.