The goal for every person with diabetes is to match their insulin doses and their carbs
eaten to achieve balanced blood glucose levels.
But how do we know what a good balance is?
After all, blood glucose never stays at one level for very long!
Blood glucose can be affected by many things, including: the amount and type of carbs eaten,
the amount of insulin that is given, the child’s activity levels, and stress.
No two people with T1D are the same - each person with T1D may react differently even
if they have the exact same diet and insulin doses.
Because blood glucose can vary so much, it’s important to monitor it throughout the day
in order to be safe.
We’ll talk more about different ways to monitor blood glucose in another video.
Because blood glucose levels can change so much, we use a range of numbers that are healthy.
This is called the “Target Blood Glucose Range”.
You can think of the target blood glucose range like a dartboard - you aim for the target
in the middle, but it’s okay if you’re a little off!
The more time spent in the Target Range, the better.
Going above this range can lead to health issues like ketones and ketoacidosis, while
going below this range can lead to unconsciousness, seizures, or even death.
In general, when we refer to blood glucose levels, we use a number and a label of “milligrams
per deciliter”, which is the standard unit of measure in the United States.
In this video series, whenever we mention a blood glucose level, we’re using the milligrams
per deciliter measurement.
When we talk about the Target Blood Glucose Range, we’re aiming for the space between
70 and 180.
Results less than 70 are considered “low”.
We’ll talk more about low blood glucose, known as hypoglycemia, in the next video.
Likewise, results above 180 are considered “high”.
High blood glucose is referred to as hyperglycemia.
We’ll also talk about hyperglycemia more in a future video.
In an ideal diabetes care routine, we want to have at least 50 - 60% of blood glucose
results within the target range, which means the child’s blood glucose should be between
70 and 180 around half the time.
We understand that highs and lows will happen to everyone, and that’s understandable!
The key to healthy diabetes management is minimizing the number of out-of-range values
by developing healthy habits and having the knowledge to correct out-of-range blood glucose
values when they do happen.
The Target Blood Glucose Range changes a bit throughout the day to guarantee safety.
For example, before meals, blood glucose should ideally be somewhere between 90 - 130.
You can be below the Target Range and not have a low blood glucose!
Remember, a low blood glucose is any result less than 70.
Two hours after meals, the blood glucose should ideally be less than 180.
It’s important to wait a short time before checking blood glucose after eating so both
the insulin and carbs from the meal have time to be absorbed.
Overnight, we aim for the blood sugar to be somewhere between 90 - 150.
We recommend reaching at least 90-100 before going to sleep to avoid the possibility of
dropping low overnight.
The diabetes team will help you determine a fixed blood glucose number, called a “Correction
Target”, like “120” that you can use whenever you need to give a Correction Dose
of insulin to treat a high blood glucose.
The name is a little tricky - the Correction Target isn’t meant to be a fixed goal, it’s
only used for insulin math.
It’s impossible to keep the blood glucose at this exact level all the time, which is
understandable considering how many things can affect blood glucose!
The Correction Target for calculations is a little different for every person with diabetes,
and it may change over time.
We’ll show you how to use the Correction Target later in this series.
While it’s important to monitor blood sugar throughout the day, more blood glucose checking
is not always better!
Sometimes families feel anxious when they don’t know their blood glucose and this
leads to over checking, which can cause stress and interrupt daily activities your child
enjoys.
Keep in mind, we recommend checking blood glucose between 4-6 times per day.
Insulin takes time to work and food takes time to be broken down, so blood glucoses
are always changing and checking too often might just be confusing.
“T1D tip!
Pardon the interruption, my name is Dolly!
I’ll be popping in from time to time to give some suggestions about how to take care
of T1D emotionally as well as medically.
When we talk about all the numbers involved in T1D, it can be helpful to remove labels
like "good" or "bad" from blood glucose numbers to improve lifelong diabetes well-being.
Instead, think of the number as information that tells us what to do to keep us safe - like
the information you get from the colors in a stoplight.
Red lights and green lights aren’t "good" or "bad" - they tell us how to respond to
stay safe on the road.
That’s all for now!”
Uhh...thank you, Dolly.
In the next few videos, we’ll talk more about hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia and how
to treat them.