Insulin pens vs insulin pump

We have chosen to have an insulin pump for our son's diabetes treatment.

Before choosing an insulin pump, there were no two thoughts of which was the best option. It was clear that insulin pump will give a better control of diabetes (possible prevention of possible future complications) & our son will be able to have more snacks as and when we are out.

First insulin pump training session and me and my husband were connected to insulin pump in order for us to experience what our son will have to live with every day. First, it was a big surprise that we were connected, but it was a good thing, since I was able to rethink question of Pumps vs Pens.

As mentioned, the benefit of insulin pumps are more snacks and better control of blood glucose, however insulin pump was very very disturbing for me. Whether I was driving a car or sitting on a sofa, it was pricking my hip and/or my stomach. Sleep with a pump was not a problem for me.

Changing cannula every time is quite challenging too, especially now that my 5 year old son is connected to it.

Connecting cannula to your body is painful, whether you are a child or an adult. You need to change it every 3 days as a minimum. The pain is so strong that you don't forget it during 3 recommended days, and when you come to change it again, it is still on your mind and you are fearful.

It takes us about 30 minutes of encouragement  before we are able to change cannula for our 5 year old son.

If you would need to choose...

Would you go for 4 painless (or minimal pain) injections a day or 1 really painful needle every three days!?!?

My son has already asked whether he can go back to pens, however we encourage him to stay with insulin pump for a bit longer.

Pitfalls of insulin pens

Whilst we managed to gain reasonable control over diabetes when on insulin pens, I just had a feeling that there are too much insulin in my son's body since he constantly was going too low. This got confirmed when we moved to insulin pump, as everybody's insulin doses were reduced by 20%.  They might be brought back to previous levels after initial trial. Ours stayed at reduced rate also after pump introduction period.

Too much insulin in my son's body whilst on insulin pen meant that in order to prevent him from going low, I constantly needed to "feed him up". There were no little enough doses with insulin pens (less than 0.5units) that I could inject him if he had only small meal. He would go low after breakfast, before dinner, just having any activity with other children. If we would go to the play centre, I would need to limit his play because I knew that he would go low even after having a chocolate bar.