Ketone strips: urine or blood?

[Pauji5]

I was just reading the thread from Judy&Allie regarding ketones. Kendall had ketones this morning, which is only the second time she's had them, and now they're gone.

My questions, which is better? The Ketone strips that you pee on, or the meter that uses blood?

I don't have the meter, but it got me thinking, maybe I need one, just in case. I like to have everything, just in case...........

What are your thought on which is best???? Thanks!!!!!

[StillMamamia]

This may answer your questions.

http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/d_0n_030.htm

[Judy&Alli]

I would have given my everything to have had them this morning. If you can get them go for it!!!!!!!!!!! When they are sick they don't usually have to pee. So the only way to test at that point is the meter. Don't be like me! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Judy:)

[frizzyrazzy]

100% blood. Easier than trying to make a child pee who doesn't' want to pee. Easier to test whenever you need to. Just easier. Plus it's more accurate.

[Pauji5]

thanks, and I hope she's feeling better soon!!! Yes, I think I'll get one!:):)

[Abby-Dabby-Doo]

My choice is blood. When a child is sick or doesn't feel good that's bad enough- but then to try and go to the bathroom when you don't have to just stinks! You can take the ketones with blood every 5 minutes if you wanted to, but I doubt your child will be able to urinate that often.
Ketones are supposed to show up quicker in your blood than your urine, by several hours.
Abby got a little upset with adults (teacher, or school nurse) being in the restroom with her. You try to raise your kids that it's personal time in the restroom, but yet she gets a crowd because your supposed to look at the urine strip within a certain amount of time.
*With blood you can do it while they're sleeping!
My only draw back is when I call my Endo he likes to be told the urine result.

Ketones strips are spendy- I would check with insurance for coverage. If not appeal the coverage due to it being a child. Faster results for ketones is NEEDED with a child. That's all I had to say, and I got them covered! And my insurance company :mad:

[Judy&Alli]

Hi Paula,
In lieu of the morning I had I have a phone number for you to call to get the ketone meter. They are sending me a free meter and I have to get a script for the strips. They are even calling the pharmacy that we use to give them an order # so they can easily order them. How is that for customer service?? I love when things like this happen! So to save you some time here is the number. 1-866-246-2683 Good luck I hope this helps!!!

Judy:)

[JohnMom]

Blood. When my son had his oral surgery and was throwing up most of the day I tested for ketones with blood and urine. Blood show ketones, urine didn't. But guess what happened 4 hours later the ketones showed up in the urine. I just feel that you can catch ketones earlier with blood and warn off what could be a serious situation. Our HMO does not write scrips for them so we have to pay out of pocket, but it is worth it.

[TracieandJim]

DITTO all PPs. Blood is an immediate ketone detector. Urine is at least 2 hrs after the fact.

[Judy&Alli]

we have to pay out of pocket, but it is worth it.


This is what we are going to do also. After our morning I would cut off my arm for a ketone meter and strips!
Judy:)

[momtojess]

Both.

We use pee sticks for most of the tests..

we use blood if 1. we get ketones on a pee stick, 2. she is sick, 3. she doesnt have to pee, 4. she is sleeping

We only get 10 a month covered on insurance, so I like to save a stockpile for the days when we have to use blood

[Mama Belle]

Blood. Hands down. We also keep the individually foil wrapped pee sticks in our wallets and stuff since we don't carry the blood ketone meter around with us unless we are traveling. We can get by in a pinch using the urine sticks until we can make it home to test her blood.

[BrendaK]

I was just reading the thread from Judy&Allie regarding ketones. Kendall had ketones this morning, which is only the second time she's had them, and now they're gone.

My questions, which is better? The Ketone strips that you pee on, or the meter that uses blood?

I don't have the meter, but it got me thinking, maybe I need one, just in case. I like to have everything, just in case...........

What are your thought on which is best???? Thanks!!!!!


Did you see the free precision Xtra blood ketone meter at the expo at camp this morning? I really hope you got a free one!!!

And just to reiterate what everyone else has already said. BLOOD. I posted in an earlier thread that Carson's endo preferred to use OUR blood ketone meter at the hospital (when Carson was sick) rather than even wait for the blood results from the lab. And he wouldn't even consider Carson peeing on a ketostick. We have fought off more than one DKA with the blood ketone meter and would NEVER have known soon enough about ketones with urine.

[Pauji5]

thanks everyone for your responses, and thanks Judy! I already called and they are sending me the meter in the next 2 - 5 days! What service. I'll get a script. and FYI, I looked on the Walmart website and they sell them 100 for $107.00, so they are a little more reasonable if insurance doesn't carry them.

I LOVE this website!!!:):)

[caspi]

thanks everyone for your responses, and thanks Judy! I already called and they are sending me the meter in the next 2 - 5 days! What service. I'll get a script. and FYI, I looked on the Walmart website and they sell them 100 for $107.00, so they are a little more reasonable if insurance doesn't carry them.

I LOVE this website!!!:):)

Just to let you know, the blood KETONE strips are much more expensive - what you found on the Wal-Mart site was for the blood GLUCOSE. :(

If I'm not mistaken, I think they only sell the ketone strips in vials of 10.

[frizzyrazzy]

speaking of meters, I had a busted ketone meter - screen was busted (Ian's from school) and I called yesterday and I had a new one TODAY by 2pm at my door. I was really impressed. Very quick.

[saxmaniac]

I paid for the blood ketone meter and some strips out of pocket. Once I realized how superior it was, I got an rx for it. Our rx covers plenty of them, so I don't bother with the urine sticks.

[3js]

and FYI, I looked on the Walmart website and they sell them 100 for $107.00, so they are a little more reasonable if insurance doesn't carry them.



Our endo prefers that blood ketone strips are used, and it`s a must if pumping. However insurance (private and provincial even though I have a rx from endo) does not cover.

So I called the company and was told they only come in boxes of 10- I was hoping if I went to the US I could get a bigger box and cheaper. In my province they are about $34(just went up) and we just pay out of pocket.

It really is worth it, because you are not worrying that the scenario is worse than it seems- there isn`t the huge lag like with urine strips.

I keep a bottle of unopened urine strips for emergency though.

Hope you are able to get them covered:)

[DylansMum]

We would prefer the blood strips, but they are expensive here $30 for a box of 10 strips, so we use the urine strips, we have had the ketone blood strips, but we seem to go through them fast!!!!

I am about to order some more, and keep them away from Dylan as he prefers them but not at $3 a strip!!!!

[sugarmonkey]

Ditto the previous poster.
I prefer the blood ones, but use them sparingly as they are expensive here. I use them if urine shows anything, or I don't believe the urine test.
Also, make sure the pharmacy knows exactly what you want. Sometimes they don't know the difference between the glucose strips and the ketone strips, especially if you use the same brand of each, as we do.

[Kaylee's Mommy]

We love having the meter to test blood ketones.. for a few reasons, its a lot easier, more convenient, and the ketones are NOW, the urine ones are behind, and I like seeing a number rather than a color.. plus its hard to get a kid to go pee on demand, or to pee in the middle of the night, when sick, or have high bg (we all know how well a child listens when their bg is off:rolleyes: )

[Mama Belle]

Last night I had an experience that further reinforced the importance of having blood ketone testing supplies. Samantha had rising BGs at bedtime. Nothing too bad (222 - totally freaky number by the way ;) ) so she corrected and went to bed. Basically she continues to climb and not respond to corrections for most of the night. At 3 am I ended up correcting by syringe, assuming we had a bad set. But ... the pharmacy is completely out of blood ketone strips and we've been waiting for them to come in on back order for weeks now. So I could only check with urine strips.

I was dreading having to get Samantha up to pee just so I could check her. I knew she had been sleeping fitfully and would be super grouchy. She actually was a champ about it but the urine ketostix showed that she was negative for ketones. I found that really hard to believe considering that she had climbed up to 417 mg/dl in the middle of the night with no reasonable explanation. So at 7:20 when we woke up this morning she had dropped down to 205 from the syringe correction I gave at 3 am. I rechecked with a urine strip and sure enough ... small ketones.

Now, she was negative for ketones at 3 am when she was in the 400s, but she had small ketones at 7 am when her BG had dropped to the low 200s. Obviously had I checked with the blood ketones throughout the night, she would've had them at 3 am, and probably not had them at all at 7 am. It just shows the major lag that can happen with urine ketones. Did I get by using them? Sure, they work. But honestly at 3 am when I needed to know if we were having set issues it would have been much more helpful to have accurate test results, instead of having to wait until 7 am to put all the pieces together after the fact.

I should also mention that Samantha woke up feeling horrible with an awful headache and nausea. I suspected that her ketone levels were probably higher than the urine strips were reading.