March 29, 2006
Daily Care, Insulin Pumps
Question from Memphis, Tennessee, USA:
Our 13 year old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 at age seven. She uses a pump. She is starting to sleep late on the weekends. We check her blood sugar at the time she was usually gets up on school days. When we check several hours later, it sometimes has dropped as much as 40 points. Her endocrinologist said that this shows that her basal rate needs to be lowered. This confuses us because we don’t see these drops on the days she does not sleep late. She tends to go high if she gets up, eats, boluses, and goes back to sleep. Do you have any suggestions, especially with summer vacation fast approaching and lots of days to sleep late?
Answer:
I agree with your endocrinologist, that this sort of pattern means that her basal rate is too high. If she goes high on the days she gets up, eats, and boluses and then goes back to sleep, that’s not a problem with the basal rate being too low, but with the carbohydrate/insulin ratio that she uses for her food dose being not enough. Often, a higher basal will help to cover food on the days kids are eating; but when they don’t eat/sleep in, it unmasks the problem you’ve noted.
LAD
