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April 30, 2009

Daily Care, Traveling

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Question from New Jersey, USA:

Tomorrow, we are going on two week cruise to Europe. The time difference is seven hours. How should I give Levemir to my son? He takes 13.5 units at 8 a.m. and 12 units at 8 p.m.

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

You didn’t leave a lot of time to get this question answered. What did the child’s primary diabetes specialist recommend?

I presume that your child also gets rapid acting insulin with meals and also has a “correction formula.” Yes? So, without knowing many details, I would recommend that you give your child the “usual” doses of Levemir based on his own “body clock” while you travel. After you arrive and start eating/sleeping on the time difference, I would suggest (if you were MY patient) you simply adjust the Levemir to the “new” time. Yes, there may be some overlap of insulin, which could increase the risk for a low, but you will have to monitor and adjust his mealtime insulin doses accordingly. Alternatively, you could do a complicated routine of giving his Levemir an hour or two earlier/later to adjust for the time over the next few days.

You will need to switch back similarly on the return.

DS