My son wants the free sonic rootbeer float that they are giving away tonight . What do I do ? He takes shots ,the doctor said we can not overlap shots so I cant give 1 at 5 & another at 8 . He eats supper about 5 the floats are at 8 . I need to give him 5 units more for the float , so will he drop before he gets the float ,should we just check around 6 pm or 7 pm . Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on a short notice !
What kinds of shots does he take? The only shots that you can’t overlap (from what I understand) is the long acting insulins. So, if it’s the short acting insulin that you’re worried about, that goes through our systems within 15-30 minutes/ an hour, tops.
If you give him extra insulin at 5, he will hit a low before 8 and will be in trouble.
he takes novolog ,& doctor said that he can not overlap because the novolog shot last 4 - 5 hours
… hmmm… I dunno… I’d call the doc again to make sure he understands your question.
I take Humalog, which is very similar to Novolog, and I’m able to inject it whenever I need it. Sometimes I will inject for dinner, then end up eating 15g too much for my meal, and inject again an hour later to cover the extra food.
The doctor may have meant that if his BG doesn’t IMMEDIATELY go down after injection, not to worry. That the insulin will work eventually. He probably doesn’t want you to keep injecting to cover high BG when the original insulin is still in his body, working.
I’m still pretty sure short acting insulins only last one hour in the body. I’m a little rusty on the “rules” because I’ve had diabetes for over 11 years now, but I have no problems eaing and injecting insulin whenever I need to.
The only insulin I cannot overlap is my long acting insulin Levemir, because it lasts 24 hours.
He’s your little boy, call the doctor and just make sure that I’m not giving you bogus information. I’m 95% sure I’m right, but I’d be comfortable with you asking your doc to be sure. 
You also may have the ability to ask for diet root beer. Or, if you completely get uncomfortable with the whole Sonic thing, to out to McDonalds for a dish of soft serve ice cream and add your own Diet Root Beer on top. It could be fun!
Soft serve is only about 15g of carbs for a small size. Maybe you can make your own floats in the Sonic parking lot?
if he is just taking regular NOVOLOG (quick acting) you should ask the doctor what is a good “correction bolus” ( the amount of insulin to give to bring high blood sugar back down to a safe level)
you have a few things you can do:
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THE TOUGH ONE- let him get the free float but save it til tomorrow when he is going to eat again.
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THE SOMEWHAT ROUGH ONE- give him the normal insulin dose for food and everything LEAVE OUT THE FLOAT if he takes another shot later in the day check his blood sugar to calculate the correct insulin to bring him back to his recommended level. he may feel a bit miserable when his blood sugar is higher (nausea, sluggish, irritable and sleepy)
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THE CARBOHYDRATE COUNTER ONE- give him a CORRECTION BOLUS (ask doctor if this is new to you and your son)
the sonic float according to the website is 33 carbs for the soft serve vanilla and 22 carbs for the rootbeer which means 55 carbs altogether so if you were told to give him 1 unit of insulin per # of carbs.
these are general guidelines that work but because your son is younger than me he might be more sensitive to insulin, so if possible contact the doctor to ask his opinion or about the correction shot
Yes that is a good idea ,but as I am sure you know how he feels more then I do ,he just wants to do something like everyone else he says, there are a bunch of kids going & he is 13 LOL
He is very good about compromising (spelling?) thats why I wanted him to be able to do this . Thanks for commenting .I just googled after ur first comment & it said that you can just to check BS a little more then usual. I think I will move his supper up to 4 & give hime a xtra shot at 8 ,thanks
yeah, I completely remember being 14 and not able to do the same things that other kids were doing. It was tough!
Good luck! And if it turns out that his BG isn’t perfect tomorrow morning, one day won’t hurt.
DAVID where the heck have you been, i figured you turned into a juke box hero or something. Or maybe even a juice box hero…yeah,
- If you ever blasphemy cecream by saving it again i shall strip you from your hero title
2 and 3 good idea
My doc keeps on reminding me that i’m not on the pump and therefore can’t do pump stuff… it’s all very confusing… i’m actually really confused about insulin to carb ratios and what the heck i’m supposed to be doing.
Honestly i want this float to… and honestly i would just take extra insulin with my meal. Then again i just ate oreos and 2 hotdogs and blindly gave myself insulin (i’m supposed to do a fixed amount for everything, carbs and humalog)… so… no idea like the correction bolus idea though!
I think the reason why he told you not to overlap shots is because of insulin stacking - John Walsch expalins it in his book. So if he gets a shot at 5 by 8 there is stil active insulin in his body - but it will not be enough to cover the rootbear. It is 3 hours later I will test and see what his Bg are like. I will give a shot for the rootbeer but then test before going to bed as well as 2 hours later because of the active insulin. I would also test later during the night say round about 2 or 3 am to make sure he does’nt hypo.
I do talk about short acting insulin - like novorapid, novolog or humolog though
gosh so much work, but i guess it’s necessary. This is why it’s better to plan for these things or find better alternatives.
best option STAY AWAY FROM THOSE SWEETS.
anyone under 18 EAT SWEETS ON A RARE OCCASIONS such as this
why is it ok after 18 LOL
Oh dear Domo - when I was MDI - I would eat, etc. just like I do on the pump. It just meant a few more jabs of the pen needle. I had been told to do the same thing as you - inject x amount of insulin for food intake, yadda, yadda, yadda - but I guess I’m abit of a rebel . When I started to do the MDI - my endo thought I was CRAZY (I think I still am) - especially when I was in his office for an appointment - and my BG was abit elevated when he tested it (I have a fear of doctors still - even after almost 50 years of having diabetes ). I injected what I needed to take in order to bring myself down (I was using the bible of insulin pump books by John Walsh despite being on needles aka poor mans pump). I told him what I was doing - and he still didn’t believe me. Now, this is the same doctor that thought I was nuts to be going on a pump. Luckily, not all doctors/endos are like this - but I’m sure a few have come across doctors like this.
wait a minute you can’t take sweets from me i am 23 years old and i deserve my oreos, hmph
eveyrbody needs their sweets !
try telling a 13 year old not to eat any sweet - remember we’re only human!! That’s why I’m grateful for the pump - still think it’s the best option for a 13year old. Save us lots of headaches…
Hear! Hear! Tyler!!! As a child I would wait for my parents to go off to do their Saturday morning shopping - so I could raid the cupboards that they thought I couldn’t reach and find the sweets!!! I should have become a trapeze artist with some of the manoeuvres I did (and I have a fear of heights - but not when it comes to sweets). Doesn’t help that I’m British - and we love our sweets!!! Why do we have that reputation I wonder?
Novolog and Humalog last about 3 hours in the body, but they PEAK in about 30-60 minutes. YMMV. This is a little kid we’re talking about, so he’s a whole nuther chemistry set