Hypoes at dinner

Hello. Just a quick question (probably easily answered) about hypoes right before a meal (like when waking up low and it is breakfast time, or simply bad timing for a hypo, or a lack of hypo awareness meaning you don't notice till pre meal BM). Tradtionally I just took some quick acting with my normal CA's, and gave no insulin for the extra quick acting carbs. However it just occurred to me that it is rather pointless taking quick acting with a meal as it will just slow it down, and I usually wind up quite high after doing this. So should I put off eating until the quick acting has had time to act by itself, then eat and inject normally? How long should I wait? Should I just eat and inject less and let myself come from the hypo slowly?

(I treat with 2 units worth of apple juice)

I would normally treat the hypo with jelly babies, but I am confident the glucose from it would be used up very quickly, so not noticeably effected by the following meal.............only high fat items would keep digestion at bay..........

treating also means you can inject before eating too, which is sometimes essential when trying to match the digestion to the insulin action........

my vote would be to treat the low, then inject as normal................and then start thinking about why your low, and if happening regularly your dose might be out..............

Hi,

The safe advice is to treat any BG below 3.5mmol/l (even if it's a meal time) with 1.5 - 2 CPs rapid acting carbs, e.g. 150ml-200ml fruit juice; 3 - 4 jelly babies; 5 - 6 Dextrose tablets; 100ml - 120ml Lucozade.

You need to give these rapid acting carbs 10-15min to get into your bloodstream before you start to eat more food, otherwise it could take you longer to recover as the other food in your stomach will slow down the absorption of the glucose.

Once your BG is back up into the correct range for the time of day, simply match any mealtime CPs with your usual ratio of QA insulin.

Hope this answers your query?

Carolin

Exactly the advice I was looking for. Essentially if a do have a hypo at meal, treat it, wait 15 minutes, then act as normal (though no adjustments for the mealt time, jsut straight QA to CP ratio)

Thats it in a nut shell...............

Are you regularly going low before dinner...........?