Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Newsgroups: misc.health.diabetes Sometimes I *REALLY* hate it that he has diabetes…then I remember the children I saw when he was in the hospital during initial diagnosis. Beautiful children with cancer, heart problems, etc. That puts it all in perspective for me..at least diabetes is something he can live with!! Well, thanks, I’ll be reading this group probably daily from now on, I’m interested in hearing all that everyone has to say!! Jennifer, It’s sad (and I imagine rather scary at times) when children have asthma, diabetes, etc. But you’re right — at least it’s not AIDS, cancer, etc. It could be much worse. (Actually, someone pointed that out to me when I first came to this group, and it is the outlook I try to maintain for myself!) Michael is so fortunate to have a mother like you who is concerned and informed. I am not a mother and therefore can’t offer any motherly advice, but you have my support and welcome. There seem to be many compassionate mothers of diabetic children here and I’m sure you’ll be hearing from them! Lori.

And Dads! Nathan is 4 1/2 but has been diabetic since he had a pancreatectomy real close to his first birthday.  He had hyperinsulinism – so severe that nothing else (continuous feeding, oral and injected medicines, the works) would make it manageable.  Whew – can you imagine having to teach a toddler to eat while worrying about blood sugars? He’s a wonderful, rowdy little clown.  The pride of his daycare class (and his parents).  His little classmates have educated their parents on diabetes and testing blood sugars. Because his daycare is at my work and we have a 4mo old baby girl (without hyperinsulinism) I have most of the responsibility his care.  We use Humulin UltraLente with Regular in the morning and before dinner.  I can’t remember the last time he was below 60 or above 250, although he does fluctuate alot with exercise. He’s growing up too fast!  Even though we give him 2 shots/day and check his bG 4 times/day you’d think it would slow down my perception of how fast he’s growing.  I worry about his teen years and beyond. Speaking of which, he can almost check his sugar by himself.  Our kit, though, has test strips which must be blotted, wait 60 seconds, wipe, wait 60 more with strip in machine – read bG.  He can poke, blot, and press the buttons, but waiting 60 seconds and wiping is too much. We’ve been thinking about the One Touch II.  How many button presses does it require and is there a "timed wait" involved? Brandon

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hello everyone! I am new to Internet, and was thrilled to find this newsgroup! My son is 9 years old and has had diabetes for 4.5 years. The info in this group is great, but I would be interested in hearing from other parents of children w/diabetes. In particular, our biggest problem is getting his BG stable. He ranges from 50-350 in a matter of hours. He is on Humelin R & Humelin NPH, twice daily. It seems the biggest factor in his BG is exercise. I realize for a child of his age, exercise is probably the best thing for him, but for example, after Karate class, its not unusual for him to be in the 50’s, which is *WAY* too low for him, especially since it is only a couple of hours before bed. We’ve tried an extra snack before class, but that doesnt seem to quite get it. Sometimes I *REALLY* hate it that he has diabetes…then I remember the children I saw when he was in the hospital during initial diagnosis. Beautiful children with cancer, heart problems, etc. That puts it all in perspective for me..at least diabetes is something he can live with!! Well, thanks, I’ll be reading this group probably daily from now on, I’m interested in hearing all that everyone has to say!! Sincerely Jennifer Michael’s mom!!!

Response:

Speaking of which, he can almost check his sugar by himself.  Our kit, though, has test strips which must be blotted, wait 60 seconds, wipe, wait 60 more with strip in machine – read bG.  He can poke, blot, and press the buttons, but waiting 60 seconds and wiping is too much. We’ve been thinking about the One Touch II.  How many button presses does it require and is there a "timed wait" involved?

I think the OT II takes one button.  However you might want to consider either the EXATECH compainon II or the MEDISENSE.  They take NO BUTTONS AT ALL!!! They turn on when you insert the strip.  However time is a factor.  You have something limited in the number of seconds before you have to drop a drop or it will say ERROR and turn off. Also the OT II has that need download feature.  Order the no extra cost cable (Medisense also has this feature but the cable is extra. LOTS extra) and you can download the last bunch of readings to your computer for graphic anaylis.  Very nice. —

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snip We’ve been thinking about the One Touch II.  How many button presses does it require and is there a "timed wait" involved? Brandon

        I use the Accu-Check Easy unit.  All you have to do is turn the unit on and drop the blood on the pad and stick in the montior.  In 45 sec to a min you get the results.  I use to have a unit that required wiping and waiting, I find this unit much easier to use. Good luck. Dave.

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In particular, our biggest problem is getting his BG stable. He ranges from 50-350 in a matter of hours. He is on Humelin R & Humelin NPH, twice daily.

Managing on two injections/day is considerably more difficult than managing on three or four. Two/day means that much more of the insulin is in long-acting forms (NPH), so adjusting for swings takes longer. I can certainly sympathize that more times per day is difficult with a child, but you do have more control. Research seems to indicate that prepubescent children suffer little or no lasting damage from high blood glucose. A 9-year-old is also beyond the age that low blood glucose may be related to learning disabilities. At that age, the greatest danger is physical injury during a severe insulin reaction. It’s thus a good age to develop strong patterns of behavior and treatment without worrying too much about actual bg values. In other words, develop the strong patterns of measuring bg and adjusting insulin dose but keeping guilt and worry out of the picture. This will yield constructive patterns for the more distant future. The One Touch II is much simpler than your machine.  It requires pressing one button to turn it on, wait for it to tell you to insert a strip, insert the strip, poke, put the blood on the strip, and wait 45 seconds.

The One Touch Basic is operationally identical to the One Touch II, and can be bought for $10 after rebate, or $zero with rebate and trade-in. This may be useful for those just wanting to try out a meter that works differently without investing the cost of the One Touch II. The Basic lacks advanced features such as 250-measurement memory, download capability, more than two languages, etc.

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| Speaking of which, he can almost check his sugar by himself.  Our kit, | though, has test strips which must be blotted, wait 60 seconds, wipe, | wait 60 more with strip in machine – read bG.  He can poke, blot, and | press the buttons, but waiting 60 seconds and wiping is too much. | We’ve been thinking about the One Touch II.  How many button presses does | it require and is there a "timed wait" involved? The procdure for OTII is: 1. Turn on by pressing button. 2. Insert test strip 3. Lance to produce ‘hanging drop of blood’ 4. ‘Drop’ blood on test strip without touching finger to strip 5. Wait 45 seconds. 6. Read and then turn off. As a bonus, the last 250 readings are kept in memory, and, if you wanted, you could review your son’s last few readings very quickly. While I consider this private information, I might feel differently if it were my son.  It’s also a convenience.  Sometimes I don’t write in my logbook until a more convenient time. Andy —                                 | Andy Ellis               |                                 | Room: DR-01C57           |                                 | 11900 North Pecos Street |                                 | Denver, CO  80234        |                                 | (303) 538-4286           |

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: Speaking of which, he can almost check his sugar by himself.  Our kit, : though, has test strips which must be blotted, wait 60 seconds, wipe, : wait 60 more with strip in machine – read bG.  He can poke, blot, and : press the buttons, but waiting 60 seconds and wiping is too much. : We’ve been thinking about the One Touch II.  How many button presses does : it require and is there a "timed wait" involved? I think the Glucometer Elite is even easier than the One Touch. All you have to do is get a tiny drop of blood on your finger and touch the strip, which has already been inserted into the machine, to the drop of blood until the machine beeps. End of procedure, until the machine gives you the answer. Then you take out the strip and that’s the end. You’d probably have to insert and take out the strip for him, but he could do the actual test himself. Particularly because he doesn’t have to aim a hanging drop of blood onto a tiny target. So glad there are parents like you out there! Natalie A. Sera, proud mother of Josh

Response:

Speaking of which, he can almost check his sugar by himself.  Our kit, though, has test strips which must be blotted, wait 60 seconds, wipe, wait 60 more with strip in machine – read bG.  He can poke, blot, and press the buttons, but waiting 60 seconds and wiping is too much. We’ve been thinking about the One Touch II.  How many button presses does it require and is there a "timed wait" involved?

The One Touch II is much simpler than your machine.  It requires pressing one button to turn it on, wait for it to tell you to insert a strip, insert the strip, poke, put the blood on the strip, and wait 45 seconds. It then gives you the bG number (together with a pleasing beep, if you have that option turned on).  No blotting, no timing on your part — it does all that automatically.   Oh, you also have to press the button to turn it off (if you don’t, it automatically turns itself off after, I think, 2 minutes).  Plus, each box of strips has a code number from 1-16 (which I think has to do with how much of the glucose oxidase is on the strips in each batch), which you have to make sure matches the code that’s set in the machine.  But that’s also only one button, and only has to be changed when switching to a new batch of strips. Pretty easy overall.  A little more complicated when you set the options (ie, do you want English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, or some others I’m missing), but you don’t mess with that stuff during day to day use. Kelly Miller

Response:

Hello everyone! I am new to Internet, and was thrilled to find this newsgroup! My son is 9 years old and has had diabetes for 4.5 years. The info in this group is great, but I would be interested in hearing from other parents of children w/diabetes. In particular, our biggest problem is getting his BG stable. He ranges from 50-350 in a matter of hours. He is on Humelin R & Humelin NPH, twice daily. It seems the biggest factor in his BG is exercise. I realize for a child of his age, exercise is probably the best thing for him, but for example, after Karate class, its not unusual for him to be in the 50’s, which is *WAY* too low for him, especially since it is only a couple of hours before bed. We’ve tried an extra snack before class, but that doesnt seem to quite get it. Sometimes I *REALLY* hate it that he has diabetes…then I remember the children I saw when he was in the hospital during initial diagnosis. Beautiful children with cancer, heart problems, etc. That puts it all in perspective for me..at least diabetes is something he can live with!! Well, thanks, I’ll be reading this group probably daily from now on, I’m interested in hearing all that everyone has to say!! Sincerely Jennifer Michael’s mom!!!

Response:

Newsgroups: misc.health.diabetes Sometimes I *REALLY* hate it that he has diabetes…then I remember the children I saw when he was in the hospital during initial diagnosis. Beautiful children with cancer, heart problems, etc. That puts it all in perspective for me..at least diabetes is something he can live with!! Well, thanks, I’ll be reading this group probably daily from now on, I’m interested in hearing all that everyone has to say!!

Jennifer, It’s sad (and I imagine rather scary at times) when children have asthma, diabetes, etc. But you’re right — at least it’s not AIDS, cancer, etc. It could be much worse. (Actually, someone pointed that out to me when I first came to this group, and it is the outlook I try to maintain for myself!) Michael is so fortunate to have a mother like you who is concerned and informed. I am not a mother and therefore can’t offer any motherly advice, but you have my support and welcome. There seem to be many compassionate mothers of diabetic children here and I’m sure you’ll be hearing from them! Lori.

Response:

Hello everyone! I am new to Internet, and was thrilled to find this newsgroup! My son is 9 years old and has had diabetes for 4.5 years. The info in this group is great, but I would be interested in hearing from other parents of children w/diabetes. In particular, our biggest problem is getting his BG stable.

i wrote to jennifer privately, but wanted to send my opening paragraph to the group partly as follow-up to my whine of two days ago: Hi.  I’m the guilty party who posted recently about my childhood.  Partly I just wanted to assure you that mine really was worse than most, and I do really feel for parents who have to cope with a diabetic child; and that it warms my heart no end every time a parent writes about how much they want to do the right thing by their diabetic child (hm, maybe I should say as much on-line…).

truly, i do hope that none of the parents who reads on a regular basis ( or an infrequent one for that matter) took my story as any indication of what i think a diabetic childhood *must* be like.  since i finally started really finding help, with a visit to joslin when i turned 18 in 1975, i’ve been meeting all sorts of parents who are trying to do their best for their diabetic child, and every time — literally every single time — i think, there is another child spared from turning out with my bad memories, memories bad partly just because my emotions of the time were always the depressed ones you would expect of a child with bloodsugars perpetually above 400:  cause indeed for celebration.  sort of like the one-time orphan who adopts 23 kids… anyway, didn’t want anybody to misunderstand. back to the regularly scheduled program… lyle, who understands now that she knows what the symptoms of ketoacidosis       feel like, that she was probably experiencing it on a fairly frequent       basis all through her teens: not bad enough to be comatose, just bad       enough to have that ughy stomach and barfiness.  wow.  more and more       it impresses me that i am alive to tell about it… p.s. when did a1c’s first start being used?  would one have been done for me on a visit to joslin in 1975?  (if so i’d sure like to find out what that first one measured, even though i’d already been diabetic for 11 years…)

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Newsgroups: misc.health.diabetes
Sometimes I *REALLY* hate it that he has diabetes…then I remember the children I saw when he was in the hospital during initial diagnosis. Beautiful children with cancer, heart problems, etc. That puts it all in perspective for me..at least diabetes is something he can live with!!
Well, thanks, I’ll be reading this group probably daily from now on, I’m interested in hearing all that everyone has to say!!
Jennifer,
It’s sad (and I imagine rather scary at times) when children have asthma, diabetes, etc. But you’re right — at least it’s not AIDS, cancer, etc. It could be much worse. (Actually, someone pointed that out to me when I first came to this group, and it is the outlook I try to maintain for myself!) Michael is so fortunate to have a mother like you who is concerned and informed. I am not a mother and therefore can’t offer any motherly advice, but you have my support and welcome. There seem to be many compassionate mothers of diabetic children here and I’m sure you’ll be hearing from them! Lori.

Jennifer I knew my mother hurt when I was diagnosed, but it wasn’t unitl a few years age that I really understood the mother’s line "I wish it could have been me"  You mother’s suffer, and we children may not realize it for a LONG time, but thank God you are there for us children! Just do your best! michelle (diagnosed at 11, now 37)

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