Tonight my husband and I are going to a movie. We hardly ever (never) go out anymore, since DS's dx (I know many of you can relate). So I asked my very bright, capable neighbor girl (age 16) to watch the kids. Our plan is to give DS dinner so we can bolus him right before we go, around 6. We'll be gone for 3 hours, at a theater a few miles from our house. What do you all require of/instruct your babysitters in these circumstances? We are instructing her to carry the dexcom around with her, so it's always reading him (obviously). His low alarm is set at 70. She knows what snack to give him if it gives the low alert, and then to text us. Otherwise he's not to eat anything except a carb free snack if he wants it. So this is all she really knows how to do- she doesn't know how to test BG, administer insulin, or how/when to give glucagon. Are we being too trusting? We're desperate, d e s p e r a t e, for just a bit of time alone together.
I would say that you know your child best and if you are comfortable with it, then it's fine. I've never had a three year old with D, so it's hard for me to 100% understand, but if he has a Dexcom and you ask her to watch it and text you if she sees double arrow down or something, and you are not 2 hours away from home, I don't see what could go wrong.
That should probably be fine for the few hours you will be gone. Just be careful texting in a movie theater these days.
That's very similar to our approach now, but when our youngest was that age, she was still on shots and didn't have a CGM so we did need to train on how to draw up insulin and inject. We paid them to come over and be trained, then sent home syringes with instructions to practice on an orange. When they sat with the kids, we had them text us numbers. We did all calculations when needed and texted back doses. This was pre-smart phones for us so texting in theaters wasn't the issue that it would be today. It is really, really nice to have a dependable, trained sitter!
Personally, I would raise the low alarm to 90 and set the falling alarm to the lowest setting. I feel like it is better to have him high than low. I wouldn't worry about the glucagon but it might be nice to teach her to check BG so if the low alarm goes off she can check him and text you the number. Have fun!
This. I teach at a high school, so I have a good supply of babysitters, but there are only a couple I trust watching Christopher. Luckily, Caroline, our 11 year old daughter, knows how to help out. We feed before hand and bolus before we leave as well.
When Gregory was younger, we had the benefit of having a nice, smart, responsible teenager with Type 1 in our town who was a great babysitter! I would set his low higher (around 100) just for the few hours that you will be gone and I would teach her how to do a BG. I hope everything goes really well and this is the first of a lot of enjoyable date nights for you!
I hope ypu had a good night out! This is a late tip, I would give a bit less bolus and let him run a little higher for the evening.
