Insulin pumps are programmed to deliver personalized basal rates, measured in units per hour (U/hr) throughout the day and night, depending on your needs.2

If you’re currently on multiple daily injections, the idea of using different basal rates might sound a bit complicated. But basal rates are a great tool, as most people with type 1 diabetes will require different amounts of insulin at different times of the day.

With insulin pumps you can personalize your basal rates to suit your individual needs!

Basal insulin can easily be adjusted with an insulin pump, and your healthcare team should be able to advise you on getting your basal dose set to the correct amounts.

Setting up your basal doses can take a bit of time to get right. This is because the exact amount of insulin your body needs changes depending on:

•  Activity
• Stress
• Mealtimes 
• Illness
• Schedule
• and lots of other factors.²

Your healthcare provider can help you adjust your basal rates to address these changing needs. ​​With automated insulin pumps, you don’t need to adjust them yourself as the system does it automatically.

​​​In the case of non-automated insulin pumps, basal insulin can also be manually reduced or increased when needed. This is also known as a temporary basal. Examples of when you may use this feature include exercising, or to combat dawn phenomenon2 (when glucose levels rise in the morning).

See a good video explainer here

If your blood glucose is high or if you are planning to eat, you will need to take a bolus dose of insulin.

These are not pre-programmed, and you must administer this yourself (or in the case of caregivers, on behalf of a child).

However, insulin pumps have a bolus calculator built into the system which can suggest a dose based on your individual settings2, and certain values like current glucose level and/or the carbohydrate value of your food.

Your healthcare team should be able to help you set up your individual settings, including what’s known as your ‘insulin to carb ratio’.

Some insulin pumps allow you to dose in increments as low as 0.025 units! This means really precise dosing, which can also help to improve blood glucose control⁴.

Your diabetes healthcare team is best positioned to advise which insulin therapy options may be the most suitable, based on your clinical and lifestyle needs.

Every insulin pump requires a cannula in order to deliver the insulin into your body. These will vary slightly depending on the individual pump, but they are designed to be as comfortable as possible. These cannulas or infusion sets are normally inserted once every three days, eliminating the need for multiple daily injections.

This depends on the type of insulin pump you have. Most insulin pumps are waterproof or water-resistant to some degree. Please check with each manufacturer for their recommendations.

Yes! The pump will remain connected whileyou sleep, whether you have a tubed or tubeless pump. It’s a matter of finding out what works for you, and it won’t be long before you’re used to sleeping with a pump.

Not for your pump, no! Due to the way that an insulin pump works, only fast-acting insulin is needed.

It is still however recommended to have both types of insulin in back-up supplies in case of a pump failure. You will need to return to MDI until the problem is fixed.

Speak to your healthcare team to discuss your options on insulin pump reimbursement.