Trouble with pump

I started my daughter on the ping about four months ago. She is 3 and has two brothers and is very rough and tumble. I have problems with the insulin not getting to her at times. She will go very high. I was told how much I would love the pump but no one ever told me how frustrating the pump would be. Three times she has spiked over 600 and this NEVER happened on shots. I don’t have problems with the site coming out very often so it must be something with the site not working or the cartridge or something. We are currently using an inset 30 and I think it works about the best. Has hanyone else had problems with preschoolers and the ping? Any suggestions? . .

If there is an interruption in the flow of insulin, bubbles, bad site, site dislodged, etc., yes, they will go high fast as there is no background insulin working for the day. I would test a lot more often, If a new pumper and truly having problems, I would try the steel needle sets (have heard they are comfortable). This would eliminate problems with the site itself as with a needle set they will be getting insulin. Then you can fine tune all basals, then the fine tune the bolus insulin. In a couple of months once you are sure of what you are doing, you can go back to the insets. I would use EMLA if I felt the site change would be painful. Our endo reduced the dose across the board when starting the pump so she was high at first, then we increased basals. Once the honeymoon is over, the spikes kick in and you will notice spikes where previously there were few. The first time we saw a 300, we panicked (she had rarely been over 200 the first year of diagnosis). Testing two hours after meals and correcting will help. You don’t want to wait until she is so high; so test more often for now.

I think our basal rates are fine. I just have problems with the pump/site itself. It’s very discouraging. Some days I hate the pump. I do check her blood sugar all the time. We tried the steel needle in the beginning and had trouble with those too but maybe I need to try them again, just hate having something else on her body. Wow, I think it’s rare that you hardly ever see your kddo over 200…we are over 200 on on a regualr basis after she eats at least. I do test two hours after meals. What is EMLA? Thx!

My son is having some of these same things happen. All summer his BG has been high, really high - 500s and 600s. He is 12 years old. I am not sure if he is not taking his bolus when he eats or if something else is wrong. I don’t want to raise his basal because occasionally he has lows. We are frustrated to. I am waiting for school to start and see if once he is on a schedule if things straighten out.

sometimes it takes months of adjustng basil and bolus amounts and the adjustment to how the body will hande only having fast acting insulin when it was getting long acting before making the switch to the pump…although the canula be pulled out of the skin and since its under the pod…if thats the case i would recomend skin tac for less pull in the pod

Emla is a cream that numbs your skin we don’t use it but some people do. Our Dr. does for drawing blood for labs. I don’t know that you would want to do this but I have heard of some people using long acting insulin such as lantus for half of their daily basal dose in case of site failures to keep from ending up with such high blood sugars and ketoacidosis. Just a thought if you are facing this frequently. Hope things get better.