So what are your secrets. We followed the directions (alcohol swabs, and step by step application instructions) and got about 2-3 days out of our first two. This doesn’t compare well to our use of Grifgrips that last almost 2 weeks each.
I like the look and idea of dextape, but we must be missing something.
Really? Our Dextape stays the full 2 weeks and is VERY difficult to remove at the end of that period because not even the edges have lifted up!
What we do.
Liam doesn’t exercise, swim, or do anything very physical right now other than chase the cats and his brothers around when they play. Is exercise/sweating possibly a concern that’s causing it to be less effective?
We have only used one Dextape so far, using the same process as @ClaudnDaye, with 3 layers of SkinTac on the skin. We got a couple days less then Grifgrips (they last us about a week with swimming), which is a bit disappointing – may be due to lack of experience. WE’ll keep on trying.
My experience matches @ClaudnDaye’s. I cannot compare it to griffgrips specifically, but I will say that I could not love DexTape more! I don’t require skintac at all, though. I probably don’t sweat that much, which is to say I’m probably not exercising enough.
Ok we will try the skin tac. How far out are you placing it? It seems that my son sweats a lot, and adhesion was starting to fail after only one day. We were cutting off parts that were coming up, and on day two or three there wasn’t much left attached.
The whole piece of tape - whatever size you’re using, plus a little extra outside that which can be cleaned away with unisolve. You want to make sure the whole tape area has skin tac under it, minus any around the rectangular area that the sensor fits through.
That’s good to know. I don’t do this with my Opsite, which lasts a good three weeks anyway. My Dextape samples just arrived, so I’m glad I didn’t rush to apply one!
Ok, we will give it a try. The other issue we were having is my son sweats a lot, so the area under the tape has a large moisture buildup. Is this stuff supposed to breathe?
That would be a great question for @toddex. Like I said, Liam doesn’t sweat that much and WHEN, it’s only his head, so my experience may not be typical and I MAY have issues with this and all other tapes when he starts to become more physical.
I no longer use extra tapes on the Dex sensors (if I were a swimmer or heavy exerciser I might), but when the edge starts to peel up I re-glue it down with Mastisol (applied with a q-tip). It’s an alternative to cutting away loose bits and watching it shrink to 0.
For us swimmers, regluing (we use Skintac) does not work well. We find that cutting works better: the next swim session takes the whole thing off and we sometimes lose the sensor and transmitter in a big practice pool – takes a long time to find it again.
I use Skin-tac for the initial application, but Mastisol for regluing. I think of Skin-tac as if it is pine pitch in solvent, and Mastisol as if it is contact cement. Both sticky, but different. If your T1 was using Medtronic I’d suggest to call the helpline and ask for the free sample pack of tapes and glues: that’s how I learned about Mastisol. Might Insulet have a similar offer? As always, YDMV.
It is supposed to breathe, as much as material like this can. I don’t think it could compare to the KT tape or grifgrips which would absorb sweat, but yes, I should breathe. I’m not a heavy sweater, but do exercise regularly and sweat and the DexTape performs well under these conditions.
I know everyone’s body composition is so different as far as skin type, oils, sweating, etc. so what works for one may not for another. Before selecting a material for DexTape I wore a bunch of them (including Opsite, which I had previously been using) and chose the one that performed best, which for me was very similar to Opsite. I actually initially planned on using Opsite to produce DexTape, but felt the paper frame made application so much easier. I’ll throw Opsite on once in a while for a test comparison and still find that it performs almost identical to DexTape for me, provided you can get it on without touching the edges underneath. I don’t use skintac or anything under DexTape and it will generally go a week without peeling, then corners come up during the second or third week, same as Opsite for me. I carefully trim these depending on how long I want to keep the Dexcom in place.
Thanks for the reply. We will report back once we give it a second try with the Skintac. Right now with a heavy dose of running and sweating the GrifGrips work fine. Always looking for as many tools in the quiver as possible.