Need Help

Submit your question to our team of health care professionals.

Current Question

See what's on the mind of the community right now.

Meet the Team

Learn more about our world-renowned team.

CWD Answers Archives

Review the entire archive according to the date it was posted.

Question from Riverside, California, USA:

Our two year old son uses Humalog and NPH. We have been told to discard the vials one month after opening. There is usually more than one-half a vial of each going into the trash every month. Luckily, we have insurance that pays for insulin, but this sure seems wasteful. Any suggestions?

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

This is the manufacturer’s advice and, while I agree, it seems wasteful. Your insurance company would be unhappy to cover any problems arising from you failing to take heed.

KJR

[Editor’s comment: Unfortunately, standard insulin is packaged in 10 ml vials, and insulin (NPH in particular) had a tendency to lose its potency after being opened for about 30 days. If you are concerned, a way around it might be to purchase cartridges (which are used for pens) containing 150 Units (five cartridges per package). However, your insurance company may not cover the increased cost involved.

SS]

Cookie	Duration	Description
_ga	2 years	The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_4658175_1	1 minute	Set by Google to distinguish users.
_gid	1 day	Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
CONSENT	2 years	YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
uid	2 months	This is a Google UserID cookie that tracks users across various website segments.
vuid	2 years	Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos to the website.

Cookie	Duration	Description
NID	6 months	NID cookie, set by Google, is used for advertising purposes; to limit the number of times the user sees an ad, to mute unwanted ads, and to measure the effectiveness of ads.
OAID	1 year	Cookie set to record whether the user has opted out of the collection of information by the AdsWizz Service Cookies.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	past	A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
YSC	session	YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.

Cookie	Duration	Description
C	1 month	No description
gpoll-timezone	session	No description available.
TPC	7 days	No description

July 10, 2001

Insulin

Question from Riverside, California, USA:

Our two year old son uses Humalog and NPH. We have been told to discard the vials one month after opening. There is usually more than one-half a vial of each going into the trash every month. Luckily, we have insurance that pays for insulin, but this sure seems wasteful. Any suggestions?

Answer:

Help Us Understand You Better.

Type in Your Question Here.

July 10, 2001

Insulin

Question from Riverside, California, USA:

Our two year old son uses Humalog and NPH. We have been told to discard the vials one month after opening. There is usually more than one-half a vial of each going into the trash every month. Luckily, we have insurance that pays for insulin, but this sure seems wasteful. Any suggestions?

Answer:

Social