Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Leo2 on June 27, 2012 at 4:35pm

Hi, Don't be surprised if he runs lower on the camping trip than he does the 6th-13th!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Timothy on June 28, 2012 at 3:23am

I would suggest bringing extra of all diabetes supplies. Like pump supplies esp. He could be more likely to pull them out and lose during swimming. But needles and bottles of insulin too( as a back up) esp if you will be far from a Pharmacy.
Make sure he as lots of glucose options because he will likely run a little lower while camping because he will be more active.

I have done a few long Backpacking trips. Of course I was an adult though.
I hiked from New Jersey to the Southern Border of Maine over a Summer about 10 years ago.
Everything worked out just fine. It took me about 3 days to get a good groove, but if you have all the extras lined up, it wont really matter.

He is 6 so he can take on most of the responsibilites himself, just with supervision.
It would be good to let him get a feel for changing things up and learning how to deal with all that comes with it.
He will have to learn sometime. Better to get it done before university. That is only 12 years away !! :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sam on June 28, 2012 at 5:46am

Take triple of what you normally feel you use. You never know what could happen. Take plenty of juice and glucose tablets and just in case syringes and insulin including long lasting insulin (lantus or levemir) glucogon kit and plenty of pump supplies because you never know how many might fail. Take extra strips and another meter and nasuea medication in case his blood sugar skyrockets ( s'mores will do that(:.) Don't forget ketone strips and waterproof bandaids.
I go camping every summer for about two weeks or so all with non stop swimming, hiking, fishing, and campout food.

One time I dropped my meter in the lake so we left early because we didn't have another one with us. Another time my blood sugar dropped to thirty one and stayed there for three hours when it did come up finally we didn't have any more tablets, So being prepared is key.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Teowyn on June 28, 2012 at 6:51am

One thing I always notice when I'm camping is that I have to test more. A lot of the indications for a low (like sweating and my vision going out and feeling off) are identical to hiking out in the sun. He won't be able to rely on "oh, I feel kind of low, I should test and make sure" it'll be more like "oh, I've been out for two hours, better test."

Oh, and hiking drops me like a stone. The last time I went hiking (it was about an hour and hot--very hot), I got back to camp, tested, and then proceeded to eat my entire emergency medicinal candy supply, plus the rest of the trail mix, and I was chasing lows the rest of the day.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ahe05a on June 28, 2012 at 9:47am

I send a pod for every day when my kiddos go to camp. They hardly ever need it, but some days with swimming, sweating, sunscreen etc, the sticky just wears off.

I also send about 3x what they need of everything else.
And Ditto on the ketone strips (we always forget those) and the nausea meds.

We found that certain activities / conditions tend to drop our kids lower than others. Swimming drops one of the kids really fast. Being hot drops one kid and makes the other shoot up like an arrow. I'd suggest making a note of how he does with different activities. That way if he's swimming and you know that drops him, he could have a bit of a snack beforehand.

Hope you have a wonderful time!

• ▶ Reply