Checking baby's blood sugar at home

[cranberry987]

Hi

I know its possible to get some sort of kit or machine to test baby's blood sugar after birth for a home birth but my MW says this is nonsense. I am obviously changing MW, but in the meantime, anyone know what equipment I have to get/ask for?

Im not gonna do a successful home birth then go into hospital for 24 hrs just for them to do a heel prick every 3 hrs when that could just as well be done at home.

thanks

x

 

[Celesse]

Wouldn't a normal blood glucose machine work perfectly well? I'm guessing you would need one that uses as little blood as possible. Also maybe the stabby things would need to be different from grown up stabby things.

 

[cranberry987]

I thought that too but i remember someone in the hb group had to fight to get the hospital to provide something. Just don't know what!

 

[amjon]

Wouldn't a normal blood glucose machine work perfectly well? I'm guessing you would need one that uses as little blood as possible. Also maybe the stabby things would need to be different from grown up stabby things.

If you're looking for LOW BS, they are not very accurate.

 

[Leopard]

Here you can buy a normal blood-glucose tester from a pharmacy and/or medical supply shops

 

[cranberry987]

Had my 32w appt today with a BUNCH of people. V productive appt but wanted to update about this issue in case anyone else wonders. Consultant told me that testing baby would be a massive problem as the machine they use is hooked to a computer etc so cant be used at home. Head of midwifery said well we used portable testing kits for years (basically a normal self testing kit). Might have to use a more strict target (with the machine target is over 2.6, self testing kit is less accurate so we might transfer at 2.8 or 3, theyre looking into exact numbers) but its entirely possible.

 

[lesbianlove]

my other 2 boys also had low blood sugars and they were born in hospital and had to have the hell prick every 3 hours, even tho there levels had went up by first feed, but i was told by my mw they dont perform the blood sugars test after the birth so not to worry about it? so im not sure about how thatl go i have to remember to ask when i get my home visit next week

 

[cranberry987]

They probably dont do them as standard but if theres a reason they might go low then Id look into it, cant hurt doing a bit of research. I was told that all babies naturally have a bit of a dip after birth, just a case of not letting it get super low.

Im diabetic which is why theres a risk of hypos, but the risk of that actually happening (in my case at least) seems to be minimal, its just planning for the worst really.

 

[lesbianlove]

ahh right okies hun, yeh im sure purchasing one of those hand held things and adjusting the measurement should be ok but if babys was desperately low isnt there other signs? like blue hands and feet and stuff?

 

[cranberry987]

There are signs - I think the main one is shaking (just as in adults), but personally Id like to be transferring before it got to that point where hes desperately low. So if we saw that the levels werent recovering well after a feed but werent quite officially low yet, Id most likely take him in to be checked out, or at least give em a call - thats personal choice tho over how risk averse youre going to be.

I know that with me I start to get hypo symptoms v early, so if I go down to 3.9 (hypo is under 4 for me) then I get shaky and feel generally weird, but some people go a lot lower before they get shaky and baby could vary as well.

As I say tho, from what Ive read (and been told by my team) hypos are actually quite rare. In t2 diabetics youre more likely to have low to middling sugars during labour (its just like exercise after all) and the issues generally come about when you have high sugars during labour.