Glucose-detection watches

Has anyone ever used the GlucoWatch?  The school nurse is recommending it, since my 8-year-old son has so many lows and can't tell most of the time.  I know the watches are very expensive, and I'm not sure whether our insurance will cover it. Just wondered if anyone had an opinion -- good or bad -- about the device.

[JDRF-Team-BL]

Dear annalise,
     i don't know a lot about the device except that because it uses glocose from the arm rather than the fingertip it has to be calibrated by a finger tip glucose reading when put on. i have also heard that it may not be as accurate as using the blood from a fingertip reading. But it may be helpful for your son if he is experiencing frequent lows. i went through a period of frequent lows and lost my ability to feel them and got into a terrible car accident because of that. Hope your insurance will pay for it, bret

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

Annalise,
Welcome back!

Sometimes endos use a device that they send home with their patients for a few days to do continuous monitoring.  That data is collected & analysed -- along with regular fingertip testing that BL mentioned -- but the patient doesn't have the investment in the equipment.  These continuous sensors are not intended as a substitute for fingertip testing but can be very helpful to poinpoint patterns that can then be treated.

Here's some info that's a coupla years old, but is from the Joslin Diabetes Centers.  They are at the forefront of diabetes research & treatment.
http://www.joslin.org/Files/Monitors_ClinGuide.pdf

In the short term, if you/your child's school is noticing "time of day" patterns when his BG plummets, talk to your endo about insulin and/or food adjustment to avoid them.  If we have a series of lows in a cluster, we temporarily lose our ability to detect the next one... so it's a catch 22.  The more we have, the more we are LIKELY to have another one, since we can't feel it 'til it's too late.  It's important to go at least a few days w/o a serious low in order for the liver to rebuild its glycogen stores, too.

HOpe this helps.  Good luck!