Utility of an Increment in the Basal Rate during Mealtime in Place of Pre-meal Boluses for Preschool-aged Children with Type 1 Diabetes Using CSII

In recent years, continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) using a rapid-acting insulin analog (Ra) has increasingly been utilized for young children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Blood glucose levels are highly variable, and achieving adequate diabetes control is quite difficult for this age group with T1DM. Studies have demonstrated CSII using Ra to be useful for improving glycemic control and making insulin delivery more convenient (1,2,3,4,5,6). This treatment option seems more suited than any other insulin regimen for young children with T1DM. Recent insulin pumps used for CSII allow programming of various basal insulin rates at different times of day to accommodate changes in the required insulin level. Nevertheless, the children themselves or their parents need to push a button to administer insulin boluses before each meal. Accordingly, administration of the boluses is very difficult for children attending a kindergarten or day nursery because neither kindergarten teachers nor nurses can give the boluses in place of a child’s parents. Therefore, we introduced an increment in the insulin basal rate during a one-hour mealtime in place of pre-meal boluses in 4 preschoolers with T1DM using CSII.