Pumpers: Do you check ketones at EVERY BG > 250?

300s or stubborn highs

Like most posters here - I really only check keytones with high numbers that don't come down after a correction bolus. Usually 300s or so - or numbers that just stick.

I usually do a correction first - if numbers are not coming down I will check keytones and probably go ahead and change the site.

It is all a learning process, but when we first started pumping two years ago at age 2 1/2, I did everything BY the BOOK, exactly as I was instructed. But now that I have learned more, I feel like I know how to treat my child better than pediatricians.

 

The only thing we check every time he's high is for bubbles. He doesn't get them all the time, less than 50%, but it's become a bit of a habit now.

Ketones - only if he's high more than once, we can't explain it, and he hasn't come down. If he was over 350, then down to 300 next test we wouldn't. But high and no movement we check.

Phillip rarely gets ketones though, so if your child is more prone to them I'd check more often than we do.

 

Here too! We are dealing with the start of puberty. I don't think I'd be able to keep enough ketone strips in the house if I was checking every time she hit 250!

But as others have said, when you're new to something, you follow the rules until you are comfortable and confident. You'll soon figure out when you need to check your child for ketones.

 

in different areas too there will be different protocals, IE our school system, they have to check ketones if BG is above 300 for 2 checks when those checks are at least 2hrs apart. So on Friday she was over 400, last day os school, breakfast at school and movie and lunch with no prebolus. O'well, no ketone check because it was just the one number the second number after the check was 178.

A single number over 250 is not enough for me. Bad carb counting or an excitment high can usually be corrected and if it does not come down then ketones can be checked.

 

I'm not a pumper.. but I haven't checked ketones in about 6 years now lol. I think the bottle of strips I had expired in 02? My mom never saw a point in checking them.

 

While I have to admit that it is much less likly to develope ketones while MDI, it is not impossible.

I ask my kiddo when having elevated numbers that are out of the norm how she feels.

Listen to your body with the number that pops up on the merter, If you feel off, getting a ketone level will be helpful fo you to elevaluate the action plan you set in place.

 

I will join the chorus. My son doesn't develop ketones unless he is sick or if the site wasn't working. Knowing he has ketones doesn't really change how he corrects a high blood sugar.

If above 250, my son corrects. After about 2-3 highs, he might change the site. He rarely does an injection as changing the site works well.

 

Thanks for all your responses. It interesting doctors are so strict about checking ketones but so casual about checking BG at night. Thanks again!

 

A high bg and ketones definitely gets treated different than a regular high here.. maybe its because she does produce ketones fairly easy (although not as easy as when she was little!). But a high that has ketones that isn't accounted for at a correction won't budge, and the ketones will continue to rise. We have to be very agressive with ketones and highs.

 

Used to check ketones religiously at 240 every time...and he often had them. However, I don't anymore. The ketones clear with extra insulin and fluids...which I will give him if he is super high anyway. I will check if he is ill or high for a long time. I will change his site if he is in the high 200s or above for several readings without an explanation like food or illness. I have never, ever given a correction by injection since we started pumping, and still fail to see the purpose in that. If I think there is a site problem, I change the site...I don't understand the injection thing.

 

Hahaha...no.

We check with illness (stomach ache or fever, not so much colds as she doesn't generally get them with colds), if we see a few highs in a row or it's really high. In 300-400's. A 250 we correct and go on.

 

It's really a YDMV kind of thing, I know I don't get keytones fast at all... so I haven't checked in like over a year... if I'm over 300 twice with no explanation i might change my set, but I don't bother checking keytones.... cause I usually come down once I put the new set in.

I can do this because I (the diabetic) monitor myself closely when I know I'm high, I know how I feel so if I start getting sick I can act on it. I think parents have to be more carful because they don't always know how their kid is feeling.

the only time I've ever corrected by syringe was when I got a HIGH reading (only once) and I used a syringe borrowed from a friend on MDI (I was staying with her for the weekend and didn't have a syringe on me)