What basal rates do you use and what "pattern", if any?

[mph]

Just wondering how others have come up with workable basal rates on insulin pumps...........

Do you change the rate every 2hrs, 3hrs, 4hrs, or some other pattern?

Are your increments in the lowest available by your pump?

Is there one peak and one valley as suggested in Thinking Like a Pancreas? (example for ages 10 and under: peak being at night and valley in morning.......with a gradual increase from noon to midnight????)

Have you "tested" the rates?

Thanks for sharing.

[hold48398]

We had a major shift in basal rates last year, which now more closely mimick the rates you suggested as per Thinking Like A Pancreas. Our current rates are:

12a- 3a .250
3a-5a .225
5a - 10a .450
10a - 3p .275
3p - 7pm .300
7p - 9p .475
9p-12a .500

i:c ratios are
Bf 13
A.m. snack 28
Lunch 25
P.m. snack 28
Dinner 35
Bedtme sn 35

[Mama Belle]

My replies are in blue

Originally Posted by mph

Just wondering how others have come up with workable basal rates on insulin pumps...........

Do you change the rate every 2hrs, 3hrs, 4hrs, or some other pattern?
We change the rate based upon what is needed for good control. We have been advised to not have less than 2 hours between basal changes for my DD and have found this to work quite well in most instances.

This summer we have seen flatter BGs in our trends with her increased activity and therefore have fewer basal changes. However, during the school year it is not uncommon for us to have 8 or more basal changes in a 24 hour period. Currently the basal dose changes at:
midnight
3 am
12 pm
6pm
9 pm

Are your increments in the lowest available by your pump?
Yes. Our lowest increment is .05 and we make changes by this incremement. Every time I raise or lower in a period I do so by .05.

Is there one peak and one valley as suggested in Thinking Like a Pancreas? (example for ages 10 and under: peak being at night and valley in morning.......with a gradual increase from noon to midnight????)
Yep. Peak is from 9 pm to 3 am. Valley is from noon to 6 pm. Peak basal dose is double the valley basal dose.

Have you "tested" the rates?
Yes. Informally. I don't use the basal test feature on our pump because it is just easier to do it myself.

Thanks for sharing.
You're welcome!!

[Diet Dr. Pepper]

My basal rate is 1.6.... all day...

and...
I:C Ratio is 1:10
ISF is 1:30...

[Momof4gr8kids]

Julia has her peek at night, and her valley during the day. Hers are pretty steep.

We do basal testing on occasion when we see off numbers. In fact I am up doing one of those tonight, because we are seeing 3 am highs. Since it is overnight I don't worry about only going 4 hours after the end of the fast. I started at 10 and will be going until 3 so I can see how steep the rise is.

[Armyemily]

My basal's are different during the summer then during the school year...

Right now it is:

12am .30
5pm .25
7pm .35
11pm .25
I:C 1:20


During the School year:

12am .90
8am 1.75
3pm 1.20
7pm1.00
I:C 1:15 12am-1pm
1:25 1pm-12am

The reason it is soo different when I am at school is because I get REALLY stressed!!!!

[Armyemily]

I know this might sound stupid since I have been on the pump for overa year but...

What is basal testing?

[hawkeyegirl]

Originally Posted by Armyemily

I know this might sound stupid since I have been on the pump for overa year but...

What is basal testing?

Basically it's where you go without food for a period of time (for instance, skip lunch), and then test your sugar every hour to see if your basal is keeping you relatively flat. You then raise or lower your basals correspondingly to any significant changes in your sugar over that time.

[Armyemily]

oh then I did know what is was I just did not know that that was the name.

[Abby-Dabby-Doo]

We have basal rates according to Abby's pattern. Sometimes there is only an hour between a change. 12am, 1am, 4am, 7:30am, 10am, 2pm, 4pm, 7pm, 9pm.
We also have two patterns. One for weekday, and one for weekends. Abby is a total different kid on the weekends, and requires more or less insulin at different times.
Not too long ago Abby didn't have any basal rate from 1am to 4am. It was set to zero. She has two times during the day where her basal rate is the lowest setting of .o5.
Abby has a pattern like a 50 year old (if my memory serves me right) Going from nothing to a very high rise in the morning.
We just recently had two times this week where she went without breakfast, and ate really late and got a basal test out of it. If she skips a meal or is in the middle of something and the meal comes later, I ALWAYS use that time to test more often and see what we get for blood sugars out of it. Lunch time or around mid day is where I have the MOST trouble getting a basal rate check out of her.
Remember every child is different. And sometimes your child won't follow the "norm".