Will my Type 1 Diabetic child always need insulin?
Currently, Type 1 Diabetics must take insulin. Researchers are trying to find a cure. Since we don’t have that available yet, each Type 1 must find the best for them method of getting insulin.
When first diagnosed, MDI (multiple daily injections) is the common method for dosing insulin and, in fact, some people stay with this method. When using MDI, you take long acting insulin, known as basal insulin either one or two times a day. When you eat or have a spike in blood glucose you take fast acting insulin.
Once you become proficient in MDI, you can choose to wear an insulin pump instead. Why might you choose a pump? You choose a pump so that you can dose without having to give an injection. Since you have a pump on, you dose to compensate for carbs you are going to eat or to correct a blood glucose number that is higher than you want.
Pumps can either be tubed or tubeless. Tubed pumps can be taken off for things like showering & swimming. Tubeless pumps are all in one, so there is no tubing to get caught on things, but you also are unable to remove them temporarily while swimming or such.
The third option is inhaled insulin. You inhale it and it is supposed to begin working in as little as twelve minutes. I don’t personally know anyone using this option, but it is intriguing.
We all live with the hope that there will be something that cures Type 1 or makes it unnecessary to take insulin every day. Until such thing is found/discovered/created, yes, Type 1’s need to take insulin multiple times daily.