One question I get asked a lot lately is how we are liking looping. Both my kids were using Tandem Tslim for 3 years but have transitioned to looping the last few months. My daughter had a pump break last summer. After a few months of MDI she said she did not like the tube aspect anymore and wanted to try Omnipod. We had been told that Omnipod 5 was coming soon…but we saw better benefits with looping. A couple months after she switched my son decided he also wanted to try tubeless.
First, a quick explanation.
Loop is an app that connects with the Omnipod dash and turns it into an algorithm-based automated insulin delivery system. Our kids have the app on their phone to deliver their insulin and my husband and I have a caregiver app on our phones. It is not FDA-approved, so families who choose it are using a do it yourself system. We were able to have our Loop app built through BC Diabetes even though we live in Alberta. (Free for us and they bill Alberta Health Care) We had tried initially to build the app ourselves with following loopdocs but ended up going the route of getting a referral to BC diabetes. Their team has been incredible us navigate the setup process as well as more appointments to tweak settings. If you want to check them out click here for The BC Diabetes Website
Every family has to decide what works best for them, but for our family it has had huge benefits in both blood sugars and our stress level.
Loop uses your personalized settings like basal rates and insulin sensitivity—to predict glucose trends and make precise, adjustable insulin changes, giving users a high level of customization and often tighter control.
In contrast, Omnipod 5 relies more on an algorithm that learns from total daily insulin needs over time. For me
I Can See All Insulin Doses of my kids on my phone
One of the biggest reasons we use Loop is visibility.
With Loop, I can see every insulin dose given right on my phone. That includes boluses, corrections, and automated adjustments.
This means I don’t have to constantly ask my kids:
“Did you bolus?”
“How much insulin did you take?”
I can simply check.
For teenagers, this takes away a lot of the tension that can come from diabetes conversations.
I Can Help From a Distance
Another feature that has been helpful is the ability to remote bolus.
If my kids forget insulin or are overwhelmed with something else going on, I can help support them without needing to physically grab their pump or interrupt what they are doing.
It allows me to share the responsibility without making them feel like they are being constantly monitored. It is important to communicate so I will tell them if I have given any extra insulin.
It Reduces the Diabetes Burden on My Kids
Teenagers already juggle a lot, school, friends, sports, activities.
Loop allows me to quietly keep an eye on things so that diabetes doesn’t always have to sit on their shoulders alone.
Instead of repeatedly reminding them, I can see what’s happening and step in when needed. If you have ever felt like the “diabetes” police I have found that I am feeling this much less now.
That small shift reduces a lot of stress in our home.
Sleepovers Feel Different Now
Before we started looping, sleepovers were a very stressful part of managing my daughter’s diabetes.
I didnt want to not let her do something just because of diabetes. But the thought of something happening while I am not there to help is scary.
Prior to loop If she went high, I would text her to bolus, but I never really knew if it actually happened. Sometimes she would say she had taken insulin when she hadn’t. There is usually candy at sleepovers and she just wants to be a kid sometimes. So would often end up pretty high.
Later I would notice the high again and tell her to do a correction. But then those corrections could sometimes lead to lows in the middle of the night.
That meant waking up another parent and asking them to wake her for drinking juice. Thankfully we have had a couple families willing to do that for us.
Since she started looping, her blood sugars have been much steadier overall including during sleepovers. If I see her going high and there is no bolus entered I can simply remind her, and then I can see that it was actually done. I can put on presets to help the algorithm, or raise her target during a sleep over.
Now she gets to just be a kid with her friends, and I can finally relax a little more too. She still may have highs and lows but I feel she is safer when I can have my eyes on what is actually happening with her insulin.
Our Experience With Other Pumps
Before Loop, both of my kids were on the t:slim X2 for about three years.
While it worked well in many ways, I couldn’t easily see their insulin doses remotely.
If I wanted to know what they had entered, I had to ask to look at their pump, which was physically attached to them. As you can imagine, teenagers aren’t always thrilled about that.
We also had one moment where my daughter accidentally entered her carbs into the units section instead of the carbs section, which resulted in way too much insulin being delivered.
That experience made me realize how helpful it is to have more visibility and shared oversight.
Every Family Is Different
Loop isn’t the right choice for everyone, and it does require some learning and responsibility.
But for our family, especially during the teenage years it has allowed us to:
• share the diabetes responsibility
• reduce conflict around diabetes tasks
• keep better visibility on insulin dosing
• support our kids without as much hovering
I am very grateful for new advancements in technology to make diabetes a little bit easier! My best advice is to research all your options, look at pros/cons and don’t just take the advice of your clinic.
If you want to follow more along our journey here is my Instagram link💙 Stay tuned…coming soon I am launching some new things to make diabetes easier
Doing Diabetes Different 