Injection Sites...

[twicker1]

How do you handle rotating injection sites? Brandon is now having 5 injections a day and it seems I am sticking the same place over and over again. We use the back of arms, top of hips, butt fat, and he does his lunch shot at school in the stomach. What other spots do you use? He doesn't like using his legs, but I am really trying to get him to let me inject there. He doesn't have any body fat to work with! On top of all that, do you avoid a spot if there is a bruise from prior shot? I still haven't found the magic solution to not getting bruises. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong when he gets them...

[Tamara Gamble]

I think you are using enough of the sites. Are you using the pens? We had trouble with the pens bruising due to the air pressure. No trouble with syringes. I love the convienience we had with the pens but hated the bruising. Ty would complain that the lantus injection hurt. He liked the syringes better.

Tami

[zimbie45]

HI
you are using all the right sites, make sure your rotate around that site though too, avoid the bruise so they can heal.. the bruises are really no big deal usually what happens with them is that when you give the shot it went thru some sort of bloodvessel, thats all there really no way to "avoid" them as the bloodvessels are under the skin and cant been seen... IF you notice that one particular spot is always getting a bruise i would generally try to avoid it and have that are used as very last resort and give it a break for a bit. The most important thing is the site rotation to avoid the lumpy bumpys... That happed to us once adn ahad to avoid Charlize arm for a month..:( ,

[pookas]

Hunter has always liked the legs. He hates arms. So here's what we do. left leg = breakfast leg, either arm = lunch, right leg = dinner leg, left butt cheek = am Lantus, right butt cheek = pm Lantus. Any extra shots throughout the day are usually arm. He refuses stomach, not enough fat there anyway. The bruising is normal. there's not much you can do about it. I think it happens when you hit a blood vessel, but we can't really see under the skin can we?

[twicker1]

I'm thinking of making up some kind of chart. Maybe after we use each site 5 times he can get a new Hot Wheel. Although with as often as he is getting poked, that will be about every 5-6 days. Well, if not for any reason than to keep up with where he is getting them. He gets into ruts where he wants arms for a few days, then his bottom. He would love to have them all in his stomach, but he started getting lumpy, as least the doctor said so in June. So we stayed away from there all summer, and I'm letting the school give his lunch shot there. That way he won't put up a fuss. I'd rather have to fight him at home. Poor thing weighs 40 pounds and has no body fat!

[EmmasMom]

Emma always got bruises on her arms and stomach, but has never had one on her hips. When we were injecting we tried a variety of locations but ended up using only thighs and hips because she didn't have enough fat anywhere else. I tried to move around each area in a circle so we wouldn't hit the same spot again for many days.
I think a chart is a great idea and would be very helpful, we have enough to keep up with!:)

[thebestnest5]

too large for Livia even though they say that you can use it for children.
So, I tucked it away for later and I used their basic concept.
I got some vinyl at Wal-mart fabric center. I punched holes in the vinyl with a paper whole punch for correct spacing of the injection sites. I did make separate templates for leg, tummy, and arm. I numbered the holes and made
location marks (so the template is placed in the same spot). Livia goes by the calendar August 15 is hole #15. We do have to compensate since the holes in the templates don't go all the way up to #31. It works well for her and she likes it. She is 7 and gives her own injection (with supervision and some help) but I wanted her to "see" the importance of rotation and that template helps that. Plus, I bought the mega-pack of ultra fine point markers. You can't even see the teeny dot, especially when she uses an orange color. She can see it though, to give the injection (right next to the dot, not through the dot.) The injection locator only sent a black marker. I thought black looked so harsh. For, her location spot, she used a different color tiny dot or teeny heart. Some people might not like the markers on the legs or tummy. But, this something I am OK with. I am fairly certain in the future she will not need all this; but I wanted to teach her proper habits now and from the beginning. Funny, but she actually looked forward to marking the "spot" for her injection. It seemed to take some of the focus off the needle. ;) We use right leg for breakfast, tummy for lunch, left leg for supper, and buttocks for Lantus. I have just been using the legs template for buttocks...but I could make an exact fit for the buttocks....it's just easier to have fewer templates. It only took me like 10 minutes to finish fitting the templates to her body, punch the holes, and number them. I also put a sticker on one side for right leg and then she flips the template over for the left leg. Same thing for the tummy. She flips from one side of the belly button (good location area no need to use marker, since the belly button doesn't move) to the other side of the belly button.

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Sheree

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Sheree

[jeep_bluetj]

We just moved around alot. Would leave one site complely alone for months. One of our prime reasons to switch to pumping was the amount of lipoatrophy we were seeing from so many injections.

We now move the site right/left and about an inch away from the last one. (It's easier with the set site cause you can see it)

[Chase's mom]

My son has always used his arms for the Novolog and his buttocks for his Lantus. Last night he wanted to try a different site so at Dinner he tried his stomach with thr Novolog and it was ok he said. So then he wanted to try the Lantus in his stomach and it left a big not under the skin for about an hour. He said he didn't want to do that again.

[Amy C.]

My son always injects the Lantus in his butt -- it doesn't hurt at all. The stomach and leg are usually a painful site for Lantus. Humalog goes in his stomach or legs, unless he is home and then he uses his butt.

I read somewhere that the hip/butt area is the best location for Lantus. The absortion is too fast when the stomach is used.

[monkey97]

We use legs and stomach mostly. Stomach in the morning and legs at night. sometimes we use the butt. At first Phillip would only use his stomach until he got lumps, now he's pretty good at changing. we switch sides every day. He's never used his arms. We weren't told that this was possible. I checked in the info the doctor gave us at diagnosis when i saw it mentioned on here, and its listed as a good site, so we might try it. But it means i'd have to do the injection, Phillip does his all himself and won't let me do any of them.