How Young Is Too Young?

[Gary]

I was listening to a Cubs game on the radio the other day, and heard a comment made by Ron Santo about a seven year old boy who may have to go on an insulin pump. He basically said that the boy may be too young to go on the pump ( I doubt that it was ignorance...Ron has been T1 for over 45 years). I was just curious as to whether age matters.

[Mick]

I have an friend who's daughter, diagnosed at the age of 8 months, began pumping around the time she turned 2, and has been pumping now (VERY successfully) for over a year. Some of her normal toddler hijinks occasionally play havoc on her infusion sites, she occasionally does manage to snag her tubing on something while playing, and sometimes it falls in the toilet, drops on the ground, or gets grabbed by her baby brother... BUT, all in all, my little friend has had a very good experience on the pump, and is in excellent control for such a small one.

Michael

[David]

I don't think there's such thing as too young or too old chronologically for a pump. Maturity and responsibility of either the pumper or the guardian is what's needed, but you need that with injecting too.
I personally know a 4 year old on a pump. I also know of a few who started as infants. Of course, in those cases, it's the parents who need to know how to handle it even tho they'll never know how it actually feels. The young pumper will grow into it as much as they grow into the responsibility of giving their own injections and testing.
David

[soremom]

My sister in law is a nurse for the state, so she see a wide variety of people than you would in a Drs. office. We were just talking about this yesterday, she said she has seen several infants on pumps. It helps the parents better controls lows, since at that age it would be hard to tell.