Type 1 Hacks
There are tons of little hacks that we learn through the years to make life with diabetes a bit easier. So, if you’re new to the Type 1 life, or maybe even been managing it for years and years, here are some things we’ve figured out along the way.
Felt/fabric squares tied into glucometer cases. I got tired of the kids wiping the excess blood from their finger pokes on their clothes, on my clothes, or licking their finger clean (Marshall still vampires it). This way they can just wipe their little fingers on the fabric, containing the stains to one small swatch. Another bit of advice: use black fabric!
Spibelts. Marshall used one for years to hold his pump while exercising, because it only takes one time for your pump to bounce out of your running short’s pocket to find an alternative. When the kids needed something to hold their pumps/CGM receivers (because we all know kid pockets aren’t that big) we planned to get them one too. I was so excited to see Spibelt listened to their T1D customers, and not only made kid sized Spibelts, but added a slot to slide the tubing through (it’s never a good idea to catch your tubing in the zipper!).
Flonase. Thankfully neither Marshall nor the kids are allergic to the adhesive of the CGM sensors or pump sites, but I’ve heard from lots of people that aren’t so fortunate that this is a life saver. For those that react painfully to the sticky chemical here’s a trick: spray the area with Flonase and let it dry before attaching the site. This should help!
Lavender oil. Any time we remove a sensor there is usually the sticky grime left behind on their arms. A cotton ball with a couple drops of lavender cleans it off better than anything I've tried. And it smells great and relaxes them too. Win win! (Check out the link for the best lavender! Just happens to be owned by some of the most wonderful people in the world. Email the Contact address and they can help you with placing an order.)
Pop Sockets. Did you know that the PopSocket was originally invented to neatly manage unruly headphone wires? Lots of folks attach these little doodads to the backs of their pumps and use them to gently wrap their pump tubing. It can really ruin your day if you catch your tubing on a doorknob!
Skin-Tac. Sometimes the sticky adhesive of pump sites and CGM sensors don’t stay stuck quite as long as we’d like. Add swimming and showering to the equation, and those little sites start peeling in no time. If we know the kids will be swimming a lot we’ll use Skin-Tac prior to injecting the sensor. It also works to re-stick a peeling site, like in the event of trying to extend a sensor session. It makes it a little harder to remove the site when it’s time, but we’ll usually just pull out the lavender oil again and help ease it off painlessly.
Headlamp. For nighttime blood sugar checks I always wear a headlamp. No need to turn on a bright overhead and wake up the kids, and it limits my exposure to light too and helps me get back to sleep faster.
Old laundry detergent jugs. If you’re using syringes or pens, you need a sharps container. Technically, we should also be storing our used lancets there too. You can buy a sharps container from the pharmacy, but that seems wasteful. Why not just recycle an old laundry detergent jug, and label it “SHARPS” before taping down the top and disposing of it properly? We create so much waste, let’s try to minimize it whenever possible.
Bite your syringe cap. If you’re using syringes you most likely have a few in your case to use when you’re away from home. To keep the used ones separate from the new ones, bite the orange cap after you dose your insulin. This will make it very clear that this syringe is an old one and should be disposed of later.
FRIO Cooling Cases. These little packs are great for storing insulin while we’re traveling or camping. Just make sure you don’t store it in an airtight container, like a cooler or wet bag, because it needs airflow to keep things cool.
Go Bag. This is what I call my emergency bag. I have two: One I always keep in my car. It contains fast-acting sugars (juice boxes, candy, cake gels), granola bars, glucagon, a couple syringes, extra batteries, and an extra pump site. I also have another “go bag” I keep in our linen closet/diabetes supply closet (I pretend I still have a linen closet, but let’s be honest, it’s been taken over by syringes, sites, and test strips!). This is my zombie apocalypse bag. It contains enough supplies to survive an attack of the undead. Syringes, alcohol swabs, extra test strips, ketone strips, enough pump sites and sensors to last a week. I keep it fully stocked, and know all I need to do is grab a vile of insulin from the fridge and we’re good to go. In all seriousness, this bag helps me remain calm, because at 2 am your mind starts worrying about things like house fires, tornadoes, and home invasions.
Carb counting apps. Most restaurants have nutritional information made available to you, but there are some apps that make it even easier to track carbohydrate values of foods. We also rarely eat out, so I need apps for tracking homemade foods and whole foods. For restaurant foods, and things like cooked quinoa or mango chunks, I use “CalorieKing”. “My Fitness Pal” is fantastic for homemade recipes. You can import the ingredients and it will calculate nutritional values per serving. And you can store these recipes for later reference! “Meal Memory” is a nutritional diary. Although it doesn’t provide nutritional information, it allows you to track the affects of specific foods on your blood sugar, and documents them with photos and notes. I’m always curious about carb apps everyone else uses, so if there is something else you find useful, please share!!
A scale and this. Sometimes the Carb App doesn’t have what we’re looking for, and we need to go old school. Knowing the carb factors of foods is HUGE. When we hear “a banana contains 27g of carbs” our next question is usually: “what size?”. A carb factor is the amount of carbohydrate in 1 gram of any given food. So, if the carb factor of a banana w/ peel is .15, we know we need to multiply the weight of the banana (w/peel) by .15 for the actual carb value. The chart I linked here is just one carb factor site I found online. Our family uses the one found in the appendix of Think Like a Pancreas (a FANTASTIC book, by the way). There are also scales that can do this for you, like the one here, I just haven’t gotten around to purchasing it yet. (It’s good for the kids to practice their math instead. And I’m lazy. Really, it’s that I’m lazy.) But I hear it’s a great scale, and plan to get one soon.
So, what are some of your T1D hacks?! Share in the comments.
