April 30, 2002
Daily Care, Insulin Pumps
Question from Missouri Valley, Iowa, USA:
My 12 year old son has had diabetes for 10 years and been on the pump for 10 months, and his pediatric endocrinologist doesn’t seem to be of much help as far as adjusting the rates. During the day, it’s quite manageable, but at night my husband and I take turns getting up several times to keep his blood sugar adjusted. He’s either too high or going low, not much in between. We are getting too run down, and it just doesn’t seem right that it can’t be adjusted. We wondered what we should be doing? We also pondered changing to an adult endocrinologist.
Answer:
If your son is having issues with highs and lows overnight, his basal rate are most likely the culprit, although you can have effects on blood sugars late at night from exercise or other activities during the day. You need to make sure that your health care provider is experienced with insulin pump therapy in adolescents and that you’re providing all the information to them that is necessary to adjust.
If this is the case, and you’re still having problems overnight, you might want to consider doing some continuous glucose monitoring which can sometimes help elucidate the cause of overnight “bouncing” blood sugars.
LAD
