Diabetic BS question

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Specializes in School Nurse.

Ok my SN peeps, I need your help. How much does 15g of carbs raise the average BS (I know every individual is different)? And how long is that sustained?

Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

I've never been able to establish a consistency even when I use carbs with the same glycemic index on the same person; of course I'm on the elementary level.

Specializes in School nursing.
I've never been able to establish a consistency even when I use carbs with the same glycemic index on the same person; of course I'm on the elementary level.

It isn't any different on the MS & HS level. I have seen kids that go up 30 and some kids go up 100. Puberty can play a large large in BG management and, yep, every kid is different during puberty.

Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

My diabetic 4th grader who drops to around 60/70 at times, will have a 15 gm snack and be around 100 or a bit above at the 10 min recheck. I'm not sure how far he goes up, because we don't recheck then until next scheduled time.

I have a 5th grader that takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours to get up and then it goes high.

Specializes in school nurse.

I just went to a school nurse seminar at the Joslin Diabetes Center. They said that (roughly) 1 gram of carbs raises the sugar 3 "points", so a 15 gram snack would raise the blood glucose a ballpark of about 45. This, of course, says nothing about how long the bump will last, as that depends on multiple factors. There are definitely times to follow that up with a mixed (complex carb/fat/protein) snack to prevent them from crashing again.

This varies so much by individual without even factoring students with concurrent, acute illness or puberty making their levels go all over.

I have a 12 year old student who was hovering in the 50s and had a snack in my office, did a finger stick 15 minutes later and was only in the 60s and then waited 10 more minutes and did another finger stick at 140.

Specializes in school nurse.
I have a 5th grader that takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours to get up and then it goes high.

I'm curious- what type of sugar source is being used for this kiddo?

Besides glucose tabs what type of snacks do you all have on hand? In my office I have juice, milk, water, nutrigrain bars, crackers and raisins. I also have poptarts but don't like to use those for my diabetics.

Hmmm I 'm not so sure it's a great idea to try to get a blanket guesstimate on how much BG will increase after a carb snack due to variations in different students and even variations in that own students body that can change how their body responds to carbs at different times. Your best bet is to check BG level around 15 minutes after giving a carb snack everytime to check for changes.

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