Basal rates & carb/insulin ratios ...........

[T_Adelaide]

How many different basal rates, & carb/insulin ratios does your child have programmed into their pump?
Is there any "usual"/optimal number?
At present Libby has 3 basal rates, & I have just added in a second carb/insulin rate.

[faithe113001]

I have 4 basal rates in my pump, 1 insulin:carb ratio. I have had 2 ratios at some points though, finding I needed more insulin for my dinner that other meals.
I don't think there's any "usual" number. However you can figure it out to best manage Libby's diabetes is great!

[Hollyb]

I'm interested in this because Aaron has only been on the pump for a short time and we are still basically mimicking what he had on injections: 1 basal rate, 3 insulin to carb ratios.

He wakes up in normal range every morning (even if he sleeps till nearly noon), but will go high midmorning if he doesn't get a higher dose of insulin than normal at breakfast. It's like he starts going high only after he wakes up, whenever that is. Then by lunch time, in the middle of a busy day, he needs way less. So he goes from 1:13 to 1:20 to 1:17 for dinner.

I have thought about programming his basal rate to, for example, give him more insulin through the morning but the problem is when he sleeps in I don't want him going any lower than he already is. We could program a different weekend basal, but that still puts the onus on him/us to adjust the basal on holidays, etc. It seems simpler for now just to stick with adjusting his boluses.

Faith, I'm interested in how your various basals were determined. Did you skip meals and fast to set them properly? I'm reluctant to ask Aaron to skip meals at this point -- he's growing really fast and kind of needs his grub.

[Ben'sMommy]

Ben has 5 different basal rates and 1 carb/insulin ratio.

[kiwikid]

Rachel has 6 different basal rates, a before lunch i:c ratio, and a rest of day i:c ratio.
I have also added a 2min noodle combination 70/30 bolus but I havent quite perfected it yet.
So if anyone can help??
Rachel has 2 min noodles on a carb ratio of 1units per 15gms carb, with 70% immediate and 30% over 4 hours.
Her reading 2 hours after is perfect (usually) but shes still a bit high after 4 hours. What do I change to correct that? The timing? the i:c ratio and the percentages??????

[game2fun]

Hi there,
Evelyn has 9 different basal rates throughout the day and we have 3 different I:C ratios. We also have her sensitivity factor change between day and night.

[faithe113001]

I log my sugars all the time, along with what I eat, that way I can track patterns in them. I have found through that logging, that I need different amounts of insulin at different times of the day. At first I worked with my educator A LOT to find the basic schedule that my body needed, after that I just adjusted higher or lower accordingly. I did not skip meals, after all, you have to find basals that fit your everyday activity, so there really is no point in fasting. And they change constantly, so I mess around with them frequently. You might want to try using patterns for the days when he sleeps in. But, as you said, adjusting your bolus ratios might just be easier. Good luck!

[T_Adelaide]

Thanks everyone, I found it really interesting reading everyone's replies.:)

[Eoin'sMam]

Eoin has 5 rates and 1 carb ratio but that's changing to 2 today...apparantly the highest rates are normally in the morning..they tend to be slightly insulin resistant...but every child is different...it's taken us 4 weeks to get to normal levels at all times of the day..at one stage the no. of different basala alone was confusing me.. a master at it now though

good luck

lou