Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ursela on July 24, 2010 at 3:38pm

When we first left the hospital, we were sent home with a Lantus pen. We received some safety needles that hurt her really bad, but the regular needles that go on the pen were much easier to use. One thing that helped is that when she received the shot, we made sure that the entire needle wasn't inserted fully.

Permalink Reply by MelissaBL on July 24, 2010 at 8:26pm

My doc let me try the pen as a teenager after years of injections and I HATED it. It meant 2 additional shots for me everyday as I was on NPH and Humalog, which could be mixed in a single syringe. With pens, I had to have the NPH shots separately twice a day along with my 4-5 Humalog shots. I prefer an old-fashioned long needled syringe to the pens or shorter needles. (And I prefer pumping to all of it.) I didn't like the bulk of the pen and I didn't like dialing the insulin in.

Permalink Reply by kmd on July 24, 2010 at 9:28pm

My daughter liked that she could manage injections herself with the pen but did not like holding the pen in for a count of 10. Echoing Melissa, the extra pen shot 2 times a day also sucked. Syringes are quicker and, I feel, more accurate and my daughter liked them better than pens before she transitioned to a pump. Sorry not to be more positive!

Permalink Reply by Cheryl on July 25, 2010 at 10:41am

David did not care for the insulin pens either , but the pen needles were definitely not as fine a guage or as short as his syringes. There was a discussion on this site posted by Seagator about the new BD nano needles. If you put BD needles in the search box at the top of your page, you should be able to get to the discussion. I would put a link, but don't know how. The nano's are supposed to be the shortest and finest that BD has put out for pens, 4 mm. Some of the adults did not like them, but that is not surprising as it is a product for someone thin. So likely a good choice for a child. Seagator indicated that he is happy with the BD mini needles. I don't know what the size info is on those but I am sure you could reach him through this site for more info.

It is no surprise that she is not at all happy with the change if you consider the weight of the pen with what is likely a longer and thicker needle.

Cheryl

Permalink Reply by Tracy K on July 25, 2010 at 2:53pm

my son was the complete opposite- we were told we would still want to use a syringe in the morning to mix his nph and nr, but we let him choose and he always chose 2 pens (we asked him daily for the first week or so till he told us he never wants to use a syringe again!). we are using the 5mm pen needles.
However we were at camp last year and there was a boy there who did not like the pen and was using syringes. It had something to do with the clicking sound the pen made. To each his (or her:) own I guess:)

Permalink Reply by amelia's dad & mom on July 26, 2010 at 4:32pm

Thanks everyone!! Man you guys are great I can't believe the quick responses from people on this site. We felt we should push her in the direction of the pen because it would be easier for school. With this all being very new and recent for us I thought it would be good to go ahead and make the change. I think I was wrong, it sounds like the pen overall has bad reviews. I always end up giving in to her anyways. She is 10 going on thirty.