Freestyle Libre For Children - Review 2016

The Freestyle Libre burst onto the pharmaceutical market at the end of 2014, the World's first Flash Glucose Monitoring System. With a marketing headline "Why prick when you can scan?" it's no wonder that thousands of people snapped them up the day they went on sale.

Unfortunately many parents of children with Type 1 Diabetes were disappointed to see that the product wasn't licensed for use in under 18's. Excitingly rumour has it that any day now the Freestyle Libre will have a Pediatric licence also.  Though many parents including us went ahead and ordered this revolutionary system anyway.

There are many reviews of the Freestyle Libre available on the internet but not that many from parents using it on their children so I wanted to share our experience. We have now been using it for well over a year so it's safe to say we know the product inside out.

WHAT IS THE FREESTYLE LIBRE?

As I mentioned previously it's a Flash Glucose Monitoring System. It consists of 2 parts, a small sensor that is worn on the arm and a hand held scanning device, as you can see in the picture below.

Does CGMS Improve Blood Glucose Control in Children?

Today I wanted to share with you the findings of my study to discover if CGMS improves blood glucose control in children.

WHAT DOES CGMS STAND FOR?

CGMS stands for Continuous Glucose Monitoring System. A very basic explanation of CGMS, a user wears a sensor on their body that checks the glucose levels in interstitial fluid, a transmitter then sends this constant data to a display, therefore users can see constantly what their levels are. They also have alarms for high and low levels.

At this time very few children in the UK have access to CGMS, funding from the NHS is not readily available in most areas, therefore many parents self fund these expensive systems.

Insulin Pump VS MDI - Which Gives The Best Control For Children With Type 1 Diabetes

Insulin Pump VS MDI, it's a dilemma for many parents of children with Type 1 Diabetes, at some point in their journey. The benefits of an insulin pump are promoted as giving better control and also improving quality of life, though for most people the transition from MDI to Insulin Pump is quite scary.