Which pump do you recommend?

[momofMEN]

Emilee will be pumping in the next few months. She likes the Cozmos and Animas. Could you share what you like about your child's pump and what you don't like?? We have to wait for the pump start (at CHEO in Ottawa) until the New Year, but we are going for an initial consultation on October 26th. She will be able to look at pumps and begin the decision making process. We have been doing some online research but would like some opinions! Thanks! :cwds:

[lisalotsamom]

Our daughter Tessa uses an Animas pump. She's been pumping almost 2 years now. currently weighs only 36 pounds, and we used to have to dilute her insulin when we were doing injections. Since the Animas is able to deliver very small dosages, that was the pump that suited our needs best.
I love the features on the pump, but then don't have anything else to compare it to. I've found Animas to be extremely responsive to any question or need we've had. We have had to replace the pump twice now due to cracks in the casing, and they overnight shipped a new one right away and sent a return envelope for DHL to pick up and ship the old pump back at no cost and picked up right from our home----very convenient.
They have 24/7 phone support for questions, walking you through alarms, that sort of thing.

[Kaylee's Mommy]

Kaylee is pumping with the mm 522, and loves it.. the company has been great.. their customer service is great and always very willing to help.. if there is something going on with the pump that they can not figure out whats going on they'll replace it, no problems..

The main reason we went for this pump with the capibility of the CGMS. We've been over all very happy with it:)

[MLH]

We used the Cosmo for 4yrs. We were very happy with it. We just switched to the Minimed 522 with the cgms. I wanted the cgms and pump all combined. We are very happy with this one also. The cgms is the best! The info you get from it helps so much with setting basals and ratios etc.

I don't think you can make a bad decision with what is out there. I think you just have to figure out what bells and whistles you HAVE to have! Good luck making your decision.

[momtojess]

Jess has pumped with animas for 4 1/2 yrs now. She got her 1st one when she was 15 months. We went with animas because it was able to give the smallest doses. When we upgraded this year we just stuck with animas because we hadnt had any problems with them the last 4 yrs.

We looked at the minimed and omnipod. there wasnt anything we disliked about them, or that we liked about animas best, just stuck with what we knew.

[Nate'sMom]

We've been pumping with Animas for 17 months now. The main reason we picked Animas was the great customer service and the ability to give the smallest dose of insulin. The downer about Animas is that right now they don't have any type of Continuous glucose monitor compatible that would work with the pump. My son wears his pump in the sandbox, at the beach, in the mud, sled riding, we even forgot to take it off on a very spinny rollercoaster (which is a no no for all pumps) and he has had no major trouble. It is supposed to be waterproof for up to 30 minutes in 8 ft of water, but we always take it off to swim (except again, for one accidental plunge). I agree with another post-er who said, you really can't go wrong with either of the big 3 brands overall, just look for the little things that you really need. I've read on these forums that some people were able to test drive the pumps before settling on one in particular. Good for you and your daughter for starting the pump. We wouldn't give ours back for a million bucks!!

[Stacey Nagel]

The animas and cozmo are both good pumps, but just be aware that your daughter is 13, probably starting puberty... and her insulin needs are going to rise. The Animas only holds 200U , where the Cozmo and MM both hold 300U.

[Ivan's Mum]

I'm in the unique position to advise on both the animas and cozmo. We've started both due to our disasterous pump starts prior to untethered and whilst we're on the animas now and are not changing (can't do that to the insurance company again) I recon that the only thing it's got going for it is the low basal. OTher than that, the cozmo wipes the floor with it. I was really surprised as I was geered to love the animas but the bolus function is SO LONG WINDED, it seems to take so much longer to do what the cozmo did in a few seconds. I think the cozmo is way more user friendly. THe school nurses have commented as they use a cozmo on another kid so it's not just me! People who have always used the animas find no fault with it but as a consumer, on the user end of the pump I would say that if you don't need the 0.025 don't even consider the animas. Oh, the history menu is crap too, the cozmo seemed to have a much more detailed history of what, when and how much than the animas.
There is a pump comparison page that lists the features (pro's con's) of all the pumps, if you do a search on pump comparisons you should find it. The animas just falls short for us.

[Mama2H]

Our first choice was ominipod and we were going to get either the Dexcom or the Guardian and use two units, basically so there was no tubing, but they are not available in our area. So we went with the Minimed since the CGMS is integrated and I knew someone IRL that loves thier MM and had great experience with service in our area. Hailey thought the Cozmo looked "wierd" and we didn't care about small increments since Hailey was already going through about 175 units every 3 days almost from the begining.

[Twinklet]

We love the Cozmore and chose it after trying the other brands (but not the Omnipod). We're very happy with it and LOVE how customizable it is. It's also extremely user-friendly and my daughter was able to figure it all out right away. She also likes the attached meter so she doesn't have to enter BG numbers. We've had no problems with customer service and would choose the Cozmore again.

See if you can get some demo pumps to take home and try. That really helped us make our decision. Good luck!

[Nelson]

Gosh, we just looked at all of them and played with all of them and Derek liked the color and the programability of the Cozmo, so we went that direction. I've managed to gererate the following opinions from my research:

1) The Cozmo pump software is way ahead of the competition. It is easy, intuitive and very customizable. If you can handle the extra bit of size, adding the Cozmonitor to the Cozmo pump makes a nice neat pump/meter package that has worked flawlessly for us. And, the Anamas isn't the only waterproof pump out there as the Cozmo is also waterproof even if the Anaimas sales people haven't figured that out yet. On the down side, the Cozmo computer software for analysing your data downloaded from the pump leaves a lot to be desired. I don't know anything about the analysis software for any of the other pumps, they may all be pretty bad.

2) From an industrial design perspective, the animas seems the most robust, most water proof, smallest and nicely curved to fit the body, but requires hand entering of BG data (no big deal). Lots of people seem to like the small basal adjustment option, but one can alternate hourly basal rates on other pumps to functionally achieve the same thing.

3) Minimed has the integrated cgms going for it, but you still have to cary another meter around for blood checks. One could equally well use a Cozmo with a built in glucose meter and cary a separate receiver for a non-integrated cgms. Both being the same amount of stuff, but the extra thing being a meter in one case and a cgms in the other. Since the cgms on the minimed is not interacting with the insulin pumping, having the two integrated together limits your choice of cgms. I would suggest that until the next generation of cgms and pump come out as part of a closed loop artificial pancreas, having the two combined in the same console is more a gimic than a feature.

4) Wow, the thought of not having to worry about that darn tube would be awsome! People on the Omnipod seem to love them. Their software and dosing flexibility seems a bit limited compared to the competition, and the pods have a certain level of awkwardness about them for some people. I can't wait until the next generation of Omnipod pod and software. There is little doubt in my mind that tubless pumps are the future of this industry. But, the current Omnipod still has some "polishing" to do.

In the end, I say, buy the pump with the best color options to match your tastes. ;)

[Traci]

Love, love, love our Cozmo. I love the flexibility and customization of the Cozmo. I can set a weekday basal group and a weekend basal group. I can set a time frame (for example 7am to 9am) and the pump will alert for a missed meal bolus if no bolus is entered during that time. For us, the missed meal bolus alert is huge since ds is in first grade and I am paranoid he is going to miss his lunch bolus. I love that I can program info onto the main screen (like mom's home and cell phone numbers--or just "have a great day!") in case of an emergency.

Also, ds has always had the cozmonitor attached and I love that I do not have to enter bg's manually. With everything else going on in our household, one less step is BIG! LOL We did compare pump sizes, and honestly, I did not find the Cozmo to be much bigger--and the bells and whistles really outweigh the size issue!

And finally, if it matters, our school nurse loves our Cozmo, too. She has remarked on many occassions how much easier it is to operate than the other pump she deals with. It is very user friendly--I could walk anyone through any step over the phone without any problems.

[momofMEN]

Thanks for all your information! I will let Emilee read these responses.

Cozmo users....I saw the attached BG tester...did I understand correctly from these posts that when you use that, the BG are automatically entered into the pump??? That would be neat!

Again, I appreciate all your answers. We don't know anyone around here with type 1 so I am glad to be able to come one here.

[Ellen]

Yes the bg numbers go automatically into the cozmo if you use the cozmonitor. My son finds the cozmonitor adds too much bulk to the pump so he doesn't use it. He simply uses a Freestyle meter instead.