As my daughter gets older and more independent I have backed off on the care for diabetes. I asked so when is the last time you downloaded your pump? answer: been awhile me: How long is awhile? dd: a couple of months. me: Her A1c is good at 7.2 Yet lack of interest in downloading and documenting is low. I want to pick and choose my battles, yet this seems like such an important factor in D care. How can they adjust basals and programs if they aren't doing the documentation?! Granted she is good about testing, bolusing, and changing insets. So how is your teenager doing with documenting their Blood sugars? Pumping or MDI?
My 16 year old really only downloads when she's been having issues and we're trying to figure things out. Or if I suspect she hasn't been testing enough. It can go a month or more between downloads. She's pumping with Omnipod.
Nope. He tests regularly, he treats highs/low, he always boluses for food eaten. His A1C is reasonably good. My son doesn't use his pump to track things either, which drives his endo team BONKERS. He sees food, mentally figures things, and doses, never ever enters a BG into his pump or carbs. I educate, remind, point out advantages, I do think some day he'll be more diligent but for now, I count my blessings that he accepts his issues with such grace and is very very responsible with his eating and treats highs seriously. I can't recall the last time he logged anything, or even really paid attention to trends. He tweaks basals when he consistently sees a high, so I guess he mentally sees trends. He's actually highly instinctual about his diabetes, which I count as a huge blessing. He just sort of knows how many carbs, and he knows his sugar fairly accurately (but still tests). I get involved if/when things start seeming "off". So when his A1C went over 8 I got more involved, it's down to 7 again and he was rather proud of that I think. Trust but verify is my motto in the teen years, with diabetes and all things actually. I give as much trust as is warranted and I verify the trust is earned. I check meters daily and question about any outliers. He's not wearing his Dexcom right now which I would prefer he did, but again, picking battles.
I'll be honest: I download when I see problems or when I have an appointment coming up. Downloading the Animas pump is a pain--putting it in suspend, disconnecting, doing that stupid balancing act with the pump and the thing that reads the pump, waiting...waiting...waiting... Meters tend to be easier to download, but still a bit of a pain. If this is a real concern for you, maybe you could set up a time every so often (every two weeks, once a month, once a week, whatever you two can agree on), where she hands over her meter and pump and either both of you download it or you download it. If she doesn't want you messing with her stuff (I might be weirded out by my parents messing with my "pancreas" at that age), maybe that time can be set aside and she does the downloads, and then for dinner that night it's her favorite dinner. You know, positive reinforcement.
I download my pump every few months or sooner if I'm looking for a pattern. I don't keep a logbook other than my pump.
I'm seventeen and I only download my pump when I'm going to the endo... I'm trying to down load my dexcom more often right now cause my numbers have been wacky. Teenagers love technology.... I know I can spot trends by looking at my meter... I don't feel the need to download it for that sort of thing. If your daughters numbers are decent and her A1C is okay I wouldn't push this....
I don't download my pump or meter on a regular basis... only if I'm having some kind of problem I think it would help with (spotting trends, etc). I download my dexcom more often because I feel like the information it gives me is more useful.
She is starting high school year again, activity levels have changed, and we are seeing some lows at night. Molly our dog alerted me to a low last night. I didn't ask before, just thought we should see a trend in order to change her basals accordantly. She is downloading tonight.
Had to laugh at this. Downloaded last night since we had endo this am. Last time we downloaded....night before the last endo visit. We talked today about actually keeping a log so that maybe we can get the a1c down a bit.
Ahh you are not alone! It appears to be our new trend too. :cwds: Ideally we should be documenting on a regular basis, so you can fix highs and lows that show a trend in patterns. I wonder if the really dedicated documenters see a difference in A1C tests results.
My DS is only 13, almost 14. I don't think we really fit in this thread yet, as I'm still doing all of the D management other than the actual site / sensor changes, and testings. But I still remind him when it's time to do one. I have started to ask "what do you think" a lot, and he's supposed to say when he has a site change due. I do all of the downloading, about every two weeks. I look at the graphs and charts weekly, or whenever I think I'm noticing a trend. Then I make a decision, but I'm starting to ask DS "what do you think", and showing him the math behind the decisions.
My dh (T1D) is on a pump but he maintains a log manually, and he is fanatic about entering everything into it. My 16yo dd (T1D) is on shots (because she didn't like being on the pump) and we are trying to get her in the habit of keeping a record. Talk about an uphill battle! This summer she finally pretty much got in the habit of recording everything before she went to bed, and then she went on four trips, all back to back. I think we will spend the fall trying to (gently) get her back into the habit.....
My DD will not log, period. It is the one thing about her management that she still chooses to rebel against. I just ask for her pump every once in a while and do the logging myself to see if anything needs adjusting. I still do the night testing so I am sure the basals are fine there. Her basals have stayed quite constant for the the past 9 months or so since she stopped growing. We usually just do temps for her monthly cycle or exercise. As mature as they are, they are still kids and I think we should still do for them what they are not ready to take on yet for whatever reason. I am so proud of the way she carries her D and what she has taken on herself, even if it is not as perfect as I would like. I do know a couple of teens that are extremely compliant, but they are the exception. They just happen to have that personality that complies with everything that is expected of them.
