(Gabby Orcutt/Pixabay)
Staying active is one of the cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle, not just for adults, but for kids too. Kids with type 1 diabetes have a need for exercise and activity just like everyone else. While diabetes can present some challenges when exercising, there’s no reason that kids with diabetes can’t get outside and enjoy running, jumping, kicking, and tumbling with the rest. All it takes is a little extra care and planning. Skin Grip is here with what you need to know.
Know your care plan
For parents of children with diabetes, this is the most important consideration when it comes to maintaining your child’s health. While many children with diabetes get used to taking care of their health at a young age, kids will still frequently require the help and supervision of an adult. This is especially true for activities that are outside of their routine, such as exercise, sports, or unusually active days.
While a child may know how to count their own carbs, work their CGM, or even give their own insulin, they may not be able to plan on the changes that can occur during exercise. As a parent, you should work with their care team to understand how exercise can affect their blood sugar and prepare accordingly.
This can mean packing extra snacks for your child before their sports practice, carrying supplies to check for ketones, or extra insulin in the event their pump is disconnected or damaged. You may also need to learn the symptoms of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia so that you can address them as soon as possible.
Form a community
Regardless of preparation, even the most active parent can’t be with their child 24/7. School, extracurricular activities, and social outings can separate parents from their diabetic child. Because of this, it’s a good idea to familiarize the other adults in your child’s life with their condition. Teachers, school nurses, and coaches should be aware that your child is diabetic and may require assistance or time to manage their blood sugar.
Providing adults with written instructions and information can be a great way to keep them informed on what to do to maintain your child’s care during routine ups and downs or during an emergency. This information can include the basics of care for high/low blood sugar and emergency contact information for you and your child’s physicians. Reviewing this information early and verifying their understanding can keep your child safe and well throughout their activities away from home.
Keeping other adults informed can avert crises that involve well-meaning adults, especially as more CGMs are paired with cell phones and mobile devices. Well-meaning, uninformed adults may try to confiscate a phone being used during practice. Keeping coaches and other adults in the loop will keep your child’s CGM in their hands and their blood sugar under control.
Use a CGM to monitor blood sugar
A continuous glucose monitor (or CGM) is a device that attaches to the upper arm and measures the user’s blood glucose level at regular, frequent intervals. Depending on your child’s age, they may be eligible to use certain models of CGM, such as the Freestyle Libre or Dexcom G6. These devices can connect to smart devices, so kids can monitor their own blood sugar without any finger sticks.
Another perk of these devices is that they can often be paired with multiple devices, meaning that parents can keep an eye on their child’s blood sugar from home or work while their kids are at school, sports practice, or just running around in the backyard. The apps used to read CGMs include helpful features like alarms that sound when blood glucose levels rise too high or too low, prompting kids, parents, or school nurses to manage their blood sugar. While these devices require occasional calibration, constant updates make it much easier to manage blood sugar and keep kids healthy.
You may wonder how these devices hold up on the most active kids. If it’s hard to get children to stop squirming long enough to get a finger stick, how will they respond to an invasive device that seems like it could fall out at any moment? Thankfully, these devices are relatively unobtrusive. Their cannula sits just beneath the surface of the skin, to measure the interstitial fluid there. Most users forget they’re on and may not even notice them being pulled out.
Factory adhesives claim to keep sensors in place, but it’s very common for the devices to fall off during activity, sleeping, showers…even hugs. For added protection, many users keep their sensors safely secured with products like Skin Grip. Skin Grip is a hypoallergenic, waterproof, adhesive patch that can be used as an overlay for CGM sensors like the Freestyle Libre and Dexcom G6.
Skin Grip’s patches keep sensors safe from the elements, as well as from getting lost during the hustle and bustle of sports and daily life. As sensors can be quite expensive, Skin Grip saves users money and saves them from the hassle of dealing with insurance companies to get replacements. Even better, keeping CGM sensors in place gives parents of diabetic children peace of mind, as they can keep an eye on the blood sugar.
If you’re interested in giving Skin Grip a try with your CGM, order a sample patch for free. Not only do we believe in keeping kids active, but we believe in keeping them (and their parents) worry free.
