Looking into a pump for my 17 mth old...

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Permalink Reply by Jan on November 4, 2009 at 10:51am

My neice was not a toddler, 8 at diagnosis, and she chose Animas pump. We used the .025 basal increments all the time. Minimed will have .025 increments on their next pump, but if you are getting the pump before the new MM comes out, I would go with the Animas because of the lower basal need. Currently adjust Minimed by .50 increments. Not sure how the Omnipod works regarding this. You could check that one out also.

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Permalink Reply by Kristin on November 4, 2009 at 11:30am

The Animas Ping has a full remote option. I assume this would be quite useful for a toddler that you don't need to hold the pump in order to give him a bolus or do anything on the pump.

We have another mom, Elizabeth, whose two year old son Eric just started on the pump. You might ask her advice!

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Permalink Reply by Courtneyv on November 4, 2009 at 11:51am

My son was diagnosed 2 years ago, he is 9 years old. We began on Humalog and Lantus injections for a year, started the pump after. We currently use Animas Ping. We are having several pump problems and thought I should share some of the challenges. 1. My son is pretty lean, so the sites we can use are his stomach and butt, thigh sites will not stay and arm is too thin. The pump is very hard on his body, you may want to discuss the wear and tear issues with your doc. 2. We have had ketones a total of 42 times since pump start last year-his AIC is up nearly 2 points. We think this is due to two things- a sensitivity to teflon used in some cannulas, and his need for long acting insulin. The pump only uses short acting insulin. 3. While I was never totally comfortable with school giving injections , site changes are even more challenging, to date I still have to get him from school and do it myself if there are issues. Everyone is different, we thought the pump would make Diabetes more mangable but in our case it has made it harder, don't want to scare you off of a potentially good thing but thought I should share some potential problems......good luck.CourtneyV

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Permalink Reply by Danielle Walker on November 4, 2009 at 1:48pm

Thank you very much Jan, Kristin and Courtneyv!! I have my little chart going here with the pump and pros/cons other parents/caregivers have experienced.

Of course, keep the input going - the more input the better feel I will get from the parent/caregiver end. :)

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Permalink Reply by gisela cabello on November 5, 2009 at 3:04pm

Hi ! My daughter was diagnosed at 12 mos and she will turn 3 in 2 weeks. She uses the Animas Ping pump and meter. So far it has been a GREAT experience. We love this pump because you can give low increments of insulin (lower than the minimed) plus the meter works as a remote control which is super !! At night if you measure her and she's high and needs insulin you just go ahead and give her a bolus without disturbing her sleep getting the pump out of her pouch.
Speaking about pouches there are some cute little pouches that I bought for her and she loves them, plus there's one that is like stretch that she uses when she goes to daycare and no other kid can touch her pump cause it's tucked underneath her shirt.
Before changing to the pump her A1C was over 8, now it's 7.1.
Plus it gives you much more flexibility for meals, you can decide to bolus 50% of her carb intake first and in case she eats all you can bolus the rest.
She can sleep longer as she's stable with her basal. With shots I had to wake her up to eat.
She went from 12 shots a day to 4 to changing her site every 3 days. We think that changing to a pump was the best decision ever. I was really afraid about how she will cope having the pump with her all the time, and she got used to it immediately, she calles it "my pumpy". Hope my experience helps you !! Good luck!!

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Permalink Reply by Saya on November 6, 2009 at 11:17am

hey there :)
i heard about lots of toddlers pumping,just use the right infusion sight and set
don't be afraid of the idea of 24\7 on a baby,and think of the multiple injections he won't have anymore
what about the pump,have you decided wich pump to go with,you may want to choose something with a lock,and a remote
i also recommend that you read pumping insulin
and i hope some one else helps,since i know nothing about this topic
keep us up with the news :)

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