The pump and checking in the night...

[momof2here]

Okay, another question (yes, I am full of them) -

I read alot of posts that talk about night time checking. Well, I did 2:00a.m. checking for the first week after we got home. I was met with a kid that was throwing a temper tantrum (pretty much my kid only does the temper tantrum thing when he is awakened in the middle of the night and at that point he is more of a monster than a child). I consulted with the hospital and they told me that they felt that the middle of the night checking was not necessary whatsoever and to discontinue.


We have awakened with great numbers and nothing has happened in the night that I know of. For three weeks I slept on the floor in his room to convince myself that it is okay.

Now, many or most of the posts that I read about checking do mention checking in the middle of the night. Is this something that goes with the territory of the pump or what? I have a friend who checks her son at 1:00a.m. and 3:00 a.m. every single night. If I had to do anything like that my child would never get any sleep and I would be in really poor shape.

Can you please educate me about why it is you are doing checks in the middle of the night and how often these checks result in some corrective action? Additionally, is this because of the pump or what?????

[miss_behave]

Its not just a "pump thing" Many parents of kids on MDI check at night also. From what I've heard, most kids do not wake up on their own from a low. IMHO theres too much risk of an undetected low during the night, not to test. Also, numbers can and will fluctuate during the night (growth hormones etc) and all night is about 1/3 of your day, meaning 1/3 of your A1c. So if you're getting crappy numbers during the night, its really going to affect your A1c negatively.

With the pump, there is danger of ketones if there is a pump failure. Checking regularly will prevent this happening, as any problem will be caught early. Going through the whole night without checking is unadvisable as theres always the chance that they will get a whole night without insulin from a bad site. The risk is low, but its there.

That said, some parents don't feel they need to test as their kids are relatively stable during the night. Of course its just another YDMV, you have to find out whats best for your child, not everyone elses

[dvane]

I have checked Ethan every night @ midnight since DX. The first 9 months he was on injections and the last year and a half he has been a pumper. I check for my sanity however it is also nice to be able to correct a high or chase a low.

[Denise]

Hmm, our endo doesn't require middle of the night checks very often. We are just starting the pump and we are doing 12am and 3am checks for the first two weeks. They do ask that I check in the middle of the night for several days whenever we make a basal change...that is the same for mdi. My daughter sleeps through these checks 90% of the time and when she does wake up she says she doesn't remember doing so. I also check in the middle of the night when she had a very active day...to make sure we don't see delayed lows.

[Charliesmom]

We have checked every night since he was diagnosed over 2 years ago. I check him at midnight and if depending on the number, etc. I may get up again at 2 or 3am or have my DH check him when he gets up at 430am.

[zell828]

Originally Posted by momof2here

Okay, another question (yes, I am full of them) -

I read alot of posts that talk about night time checking. Well, I did 2:00a.m. checking for the first week after we got home. I was met with a kid that was throwing a temper tantrum (pretty much my kid only does the temper tantrum thing when he is awakened in the middle of the night and at that point he is more of a monster than a child). I consulted with the hospital and they told me that they felt that the middle of the night checking was not necessary whatsoever and to discontinue.


We have awakened with great numbers and nothing has happened in the night that I know of. For three weeks I slept on the floor in his room to convince myself that it is okay.

Now, many or most of the posts that I read about checking do mention checking in the middle of the night. Is this something that goes with the territory of the pump or what? I have a friend who checks her son at 1:00a.m. and 3:00 a.m. every single night. If I had to do anything like that my child would never get any sleep and I would be in really poor shape.

Can you please educate me about why it is you are doing checks in the middle of the night and how often these checks result in some corrective action? Additionally, is this because of the pump or what?????

It has nothing to do with the pump. We check every night, sometimes twice if necessary, even when we were on MDI. We have caught lows AND highs. We check simply because we want to and we feel more comfortable doing it. I still check even though we are on the CGMS. Our endo also told us night checking was only necessary during the first week. I never listened. I don't feel D goes away at night and I would never let my SD go 8-10 hours without checking during the day so I check. My SD sleeps right through it and never wakes up.

[StillMamamia]

We sometimes check in the middle of the night if our midnight BG test is not good. We also check extra during the night of there's an illness.

Just a thought for you though. Is the poker at the lowest setting? Maybe try a "more gentle" poker?

[ecs1516]

Originally Posted by momof2here

Okay, another question (yes, I am full of them) -

I read alot of posts that talk about night time checking. Well, I did 2:00a.m. checking for the first week after we got home. I was met with a kid that was throwing a temper tantrum (pretty much my kid only does the temper tantrum thing when he is awakened in the middle of the night and at that point he is more of a monster than a child). I consulted with the hospital and they told me that they felt that the middle of the night checking was not necessary whatsoever and to discontinue.


We have awakened with great numbers and nothing has happened in the night that I know of. For three weeks I slept on the floor in his room to convince myself that it is okay.

Now, many or most of the posts that I read about checking do mention checking in the middle of the night. Is this something that goes with the territory of the pump or what? I have a friend who checks her son at 1:00a.m. and 3:00 a.m. every single night. If I had to do anything like that my child would never get any sleep and I would be in really poor shape.

Can you please educate me about why it is you are doing checks in the middle of the night and how often these checks result in some corrective action? Additionally, is this because of the pump or what?????

For 9 years I have checked my kids blood sugar in the middle of the night. I check one time at night ,sometimes , it might be 2am or 1am or 12am. Just depends if I am checking basals for a certain time. I know the basals are pretty set right now and if I check at 12am after there is no insulin on board then I feel pretty good. If they had a high fat or protein meal then it might cause them to spike up later at 2am. Usually, I would do the one check and be done unless I saw a low and would treat and make sure they came up. My kids never wake on these checks. I don't turn on a light. I just use a small flashlight. I can slowly take a finger , wipe it off with an alcohol wipe and check (I use Multi CLix, some people say they hurt less) and they don't wake up.

My kids were on shots for one year and the rest pump. Doesn't make a difference on checking. Actually, I feel I can check less because of the horrible insulin they used caused spikes and valleys(Ultralente).
You should not have to check at 1am and 3am unless they are checking basals. Once should be enough.

[Nancy in VA]

We check because so many things affect her overnight. One night, she'll be steady and the next night, go into the 300s. She used to be steady for about 6 months, and we stopped checking at night, but when she started getting wonky, we had to go back to checking in the night

Recently we were using the CGMS to tell us if we needed to check at night. If she was staying flat in range, we didn't check, but if it gave us a low/high alarm, we did. Can't do that right now with a broken CGMS, so we're back to checking. 3 nights ago she stayed flat, so 2 nights ago we didn't check after a 120 at the end of IOB and she woke up in the 300s, so we're checking again

[danismom79]

I check when I feel I need to, like on karate days, or if I've bolused right before bed. But generally I try to get some sleep. On a "normal" night, I'll check at 11:30 before I go to bed, and if she's fine, I leave her. I get up at 5:15 anyway.

Over time, he'll probably stop waking up. My daughter doesn't feel a thing now, but the first couple of weeks she was waking up out of fear I think. I do rouse her a bit if I have to correct at night because she'll feel that and get upset if I sneak up on her.