May 2, 2004
Daily Care, Insulin
Question from Pleasanton, California, USA:
My six year old daughter, who has type 1 diabetes, is given Lantus and Humalog at night and NPH and Humalog in the morning before meals. Is it a good idea to give insulin after meals after calculating how many carbohydrates she has consumed or we should continue with the current regimen? For example, if she has a blood sugar of 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L] and she is going to consume three carbohydrates (45 grams), do we give her two and a half units of Humalog (one unit to drop existing 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L] to 100 mg/dl [5.6 mmol/L] and 1.5 units for consuming three carbohydrates)?
Answer:
It is hard to argue that insulin before meals is the best way to give it, but only if you eat what you plan. Sometimes, the food looks better than it tastes and other times, it tastes better than it looks. Either way, the insulin is wrong. I generally tend to give it as soon as possible after the meal, but the post eating glucose will be higher than if the insulin had been given before the meal.
LD
