How long after treating a low do you retest?

Nancy in VA · #1 08-19-2009, 11:34 AM

I'm posting to ask because I'm surprised at some of the posts I've seen recently - retesting in as little at 10 minutes.

We've observed with Emma, even with high sugar juice, that she doesn't even start going up for about 20 minutes after treating. And its over 30 minutes before she's really back up where she needs to be. We had observed this before and now confirmed it by watching the CGMS.

So how long after treating a low do you retest? I just ask because there have been a couple of threads in the past couple of days that sounded like overtreating a low by checking too soon, so I'm curious.

CaelinsMommy · #2 08-19-2009, 11:44 AM

I check 10 to 15 minutes after treating, if I see it is going up but she is still low (not like crazy low) I do NOT re-treat, however, I will test again in another 10 minutes and take it from there. Usually we treat the low and get in some quality snuggle/quiet time while we're waiting for the BG to rise.

mamort · #3 08-19-2009, 11:46 AM

usually 15-20 minutes. Sometimes we do test sooner and that is if she is crying or getting loopier (sp) if she is going lower we give a few more carbs. If she is heading up, we wait and recheck soon.

NicksMother · #4 08-19-2009, 11:47 AM

We check no sooner then 15 minutes. It is very unusual for us not to see a difference after 15 minutes unless he was dropping fast and hard.

sammysmom · #5 08-19-2009, 11:52 AM

Sam's low bg treatment take 20 min to fully kick in. If he has no IOB and is low, I rarely recheck and it only takes a tiny amount of carbs to bump him where he needs to be.

tom_ethansdad · #6 08-19-2009, 11:52 AM

We retest in 15 minutes. Interesting as we just started pumping and I read all of the books that came with the pump and the hypo protocol in there says to correct, test in 15 minutes, if still low, repeat.

Ethan will show signs of the correction starting to work in 15 minutes, but if I were to treat again every time he was still low after 15 minutes he would soon be hi. That is becuase at 15 minutes for him the carbs have just begun to have an impact on BG, 10-15 more minutes and I have a clearer picture of whether or not he is going to be in range or if another correction will be needed.

So yet another YDMV situation. Folks just need to keep in mind that what works for their child may not necessarily (and probably won't) work for someone elses child.

hrtmom3 · #7 08-19-2009, 11:57 AM

We too have noticed that it takes Tim at least 20 minutes to come up from treating. So most of the time it's at least 20 minutes before retest.

fdlafon · #8 08-19-2009, 12:11 PM

We retest in about 15 minutes to make sure we are seeing some type of change.

saxmaniac · #9 08-19-2009, 12:13 PM

20 minutes is the minimum here, even with glucose tabs.

Many, many times the bg is about the same, or even a bit lower at 15 minutes, then in range at 20.

frizzyrazzy · #10 08-19-2009, 12:19 PM

same here...15 or 20 min. Even if I re-check nearer to 15, I never do anything until 30 minute or more for retreating unless at 15 he still FEELS very low. And that's with tabs. If I do juice, it take at least 30 to see anything substantial with a bg raise.

That was something that just came with experience though - it's hard the first few months to realize that at 10 min the only thing you're going to have happen is overloading the low. Once you treat, you just have to wait.