Blood sugar self-monitoring

Ask your doctor if your medicine affects your blood sugar and how often you need to check your blood sugar when you exercise.

Watch for low blood sugar

Some diabetes medicines can cause low-blood sugar emergencies. If you take this type of medicine, check your blood sugar before you exercise. If your blood sugar is less than 90 mg/dL, you may need to eat a carbohydrate snack first.

You may get symptoms of low blood sugar during exercise or up to 24 hours later. Some symptoms of low blood sugar, such as sweating, can be confused with what can happen anytime you exercise. So it is a good idea to check your blood sugar again.

Check your blood sugar more often if you exercise longer or harder than usual.

Watch for high blood sugar

If your blood sugar is high (for example, over 250 mg/dL) and:

• You have moderate to large amounts of ketones, don't exercise.
• You do not have ketones, exercise with caution.

You and your child need to know when your child's blood sugar level is outside the target range. Checking your child's blood sugar helps you treat low or high blood sugar before it becomes an emergency. It also helps you know how exercise and food affect your child's blood sugar. And if your child takes insulin, it helps you know how much short-acting insulin to give.

You can use a home blood sugar meter to check your child's blood sugar level anywhere and anytime. Blood sugar meters give results quickly.

Checking your blood sugar with a blood glucose meter involves pricking your skin with a lancet to collect a drop of blood. The blood drop is placed on a test strip, which you put into the meter. The instructions may be a little different for different types of meters. Follow the instructions that came with your meter.

• Wash your hands with warm, soapy water. Dry them well with a clean towel. You may also use an alcohol wipe to clean your finger or other site that you will use for the test. But make sure your hands are dry before the test.
• Select a clean lancet. Insert it into the lancet device if you use one.
• Remove a test strip from the test strip bottle. Replace the lid right away to keep moisture away from the other strips.
• Follow the instructions that came with your meter to get it ready.
• Stick the side of your fingertip with the lancet. Do not stick the tip of your finger. Some blood sugar meters use lancet devices that take the blood sample from other sites, such as the palm of the hand or the forearm. But the finger is usually the most accurate place to test blood sugar.
• Put a drop of blood on the correct spot on the test strip.
• Apply pressure with a clean cotton ball to stop the bleeding.
• Follow the directions that came with the meter to get the results.
• Write down the results and the time that you tested your blood. Some meters will store the results for you.

The supplies you will need for blood sugar testing include:

• A blood glucose meter.
• Testing strips. Make sure you have test strips that will work with your meter. And check that the strips haven't expired.
• Short needles called lancets for pricking your skin. Some people use a lancet device, a pen-sized holder for the lancet. It positions the lancet and controls how deeply it goes into your skin.
• Sugar control solution. Some meters require a specific solution. Many new meters are made to be used without a control solution.
• Clean cotton balls. These are used to stop the bleeding from the testing site.