Like a pancreas, an insulin pump continuously delivers tiny doses of insulin to your child’s body, and it replaces the need to give daily injections of insulin with syringes or pens. Insulin pumps are not implanted in your child’s body, and they’re small enough to fit in a pocket or on your child’s waistband.
How an Insulin Pump Works
An insulin pump delivers insulin through a tiny tube into an “infusion set,” a small adhesive placed on your child’s skin. The infusion set has a cannula, which inserts under the skin. Infusion sets are comfortable, and you only need to change the infusion set every 2–3 days.
Comfortable, Convenient, and Safe
If you have used insulin injections with a syringe or a pen, you know that you can’t discontinue insulin activity from a long-acting insulin injection a few hours after giving it. On an insulin pump, however, only rapid-acting insulin is used so you or your child can suspend the insulin being delivered in situations where your child begins to exercise or his or her blood sugar is dropping rapidly.
Whether in a classroom or hanging out with friends, your child doesn’t have to get out a syringe and draw up a dose of insulin; he/she simply presses a few buttons to deliver a bolus of insulin.
For younger children, the block feature on the insulin pump can be used to prevent your child from pushing buttons on the insulin pump themselves.
You also have the ability to customize alarms and alerts that will help you and your child catch things before they become a problem, like setting a Missed Meal Bolus reminder so your child remembers to check blood sugars and bolus while at school. All of the alerts are displayed on your pump in plain language, which means increased safety for your kids and total understanding by you.
Missed Meal Bolus alert
Time-specific BG reminder
Delivery Limit alarm
Specified high and low glucose alerts
Low cartridge volume alert
Bolus control: basal and bolus doses can be programmed in specific increments—from .025 units to 5 units, which is helpful for young ones who might be sensitive to larger boluses
Smart, Practical and Personalized
An insulin pump tracks all the insulin delivered every day, and this information can even be downloaded to your computer using CareLink® Personal Software.
To make sure the appropriate insulin dose is delivered, the insulin pump has the Bolus Wizard® calculator, which uses your child’s personal settings, blood glucose reading, carbohydrate entry, and the amount of active insulin still in their body to suggest a bolus amount of insulin for them. The Bolus Wizard® calculator removes the math and guesswork. It’s an easy way to make sense of insulin dosing.
Frequently Asked Questions
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