Night checks on your child who has T1 can be a hazardous business.

I don’t habitually check Pumplette’s bgs throughout the night, but with various after school activities, varying wildly from one week to the next, there are times in the evening, once she’s asleep & before my midnight pumpkin call to bed, where I will check her bgs & need to intervene.

Last night was a great example of non routine needing additional bg checks. Pumplette had been at a dress rehearsal for a performance later in the week. We dashed to the theatre straight from school & apart from a snack, they didn’t get to eat until gone 2100. On the way back at 2200 she checked her bgs. 22.3 mmol. On seeing this she gave herself the usual hefty correction, armed with the knowledge that any bg over 14mmol for her needs an extra ‘kick’ to compensate her accompanying insulin resistance when bgs are high. Great job Pumplette.

Except diabetes just doesn’t play fair & because she was tired & active at a point in the evening/night when she’d usually be snoring like a traction engine, her insulin resistance was taking a nap. Conversely, it’s contrary mate insulin sensitivity had come out to frolic in the moonlight & her bgs went from 22.3mmol to 6.0mmol in a very short 45mins.

I found this out because her pump, with it’s cgm alarms, was going nuts about 10minutes after she’d crawled into her pit. Suspecting this fall I crept into her room & went to check her bgs as gently & quietly as one can. I usually use her heel for night checks as Pumplette resolutely hides her hands underneath her tummy whilst sleeping. Using her heel is a throw back to her diabetes infancy when her fingers were too small to use a lancet on.

In her half conscious state, Pumplette went to roll over whilst I was gathering up the debris from the bg check. Except being Pumplette & a proper drama queen, she can’t do anything subtly, so as I turned around to retrieve the lancet, I found myself entertaining her heel in my eye socket as she waved her leg around. And boy, a half conscious limb in motion has a mighty thwack to it!!

The upside of this encounter was the lack of need for me to wake Pumplette enough to ply her with lucozade. My shocked yelping & tears like a four year old who’s left the top layer of their kneecaps on the playground surface did that job for me!

In summary. Approach night checking with caution! I only check at night if I’ve had to administer insulin to a sleeping Pumplette or a cgm alarm alerts me enough to wake me from my slumber! That’s really only for my peace of mind & the fact that it enables me to help her achieve her management goals as she is quite fond of sleep, like her mother, and so by my carrying the responsibility for her nocturnal management it helps to keep that HbA1c where she wants it.

No if you’ll excuse me, I’m just off to apply another ice pack!