Hi,
I want my child to carry around a note 5 with otterbox case( pretty big phone) with her at preschool so she can share her blood sugar with me at home. She is only 4. I was thinking of a fanny pack, but most.of them are for adults, or the child ones wont fit a big phone. I tried a child Spi belt, but the phone won’t fit. Wonder what kind of bag to get her to fit her big phone?
Thank you.
Hi Nreid,
Here are a couple of options. Spibelt makes a bigger pocket belt that might work:
Nathan makes a bunch of stuff. Check out their whole site of stuff. Here is one:
www.nathansports.com/5k-waist-belt-4808n
Amphipod is another maker of gear like this. Also check out their whole collection to see if anything works:
www.amphipod.com/products/holders/music/electronics/airflow-endurance
And FlipBelt:
flipbelt.com
And FuelBelt is another one:
fuelbelt.implus.com
Just depends on what you want. Many running stores carry this stuff so you can try them out.
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Thank you so much for all these great links. They all.look like great running packs. The problems I see is the waist size. Since she is 4, she needs one to fit about 21-22 inches. They all seem to fit bigger.
I have an old phone that used to be mine. Samsung note 5, so pretty big.
@Nreid77
You had mentioned possibility of iPod.
Just wanted to mention that we had used an iPod Touch 5 in the beginning and found it worked quite well.
Pretty small.
I just checked and lots of them on eBay for around $100. The 32GB are worth a bit more then the 16GB - some functional differences. (I would pick a 32GB version.) I have bought a bunch of used electronics from eBay and had good luck and great pricing. I see one (iPod Touch 5 w/ 32GB) that looks nice for $120 and appears to be from a reputable seller. There appear to be a lot of them available from many people.
In terms of the wifi which you mentioned. You do not necessarily need 100% coverage where your child will be. If she has wifi coverage more often than not, then when she gets coverage, the ipod would connect and upload the data. The G5 will transmit to the ipod every 5 minutes regardless of wifi.
Three possible benefits I see:
- Cheaper hardware.
- Smaller hardware
- No monthly fee
So anyway just a thought might be worth trying first to see if it works for you?
If it doesn’t work in the manner which you prefer then you can switch to the Android and you have an iPod to play music with.
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Thank you. Yes, I am also considering the ipod. A little nervous about the wifi at preschool, and next year in kindergarten. Will be changing schools next year. But would save me money and the smaller device is better. Also thought of an iphone se, also a small phone. If I feel I need 4G coverage. I am just afraid I will miss a low on wifi. This is all so new to me, so I’m not in a school routine yet.
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The SpiBelts have slides that are fully adjustable. I think the large-pocket SpiBelt will allow you to adjust down to an 18" length.
Also, the large-pocket version of it will hold a Galaxy Note 5. From their site:
The Large Pocket SPIbelt® expands to hold larger smart phones including the iPhone®6S Plus, iPhone® 7 Plus, and Galaxy Note 5.
Make sure you specify large pocket.
@Nreid77
Strictly my suggestion. I would not depend on the data transmission from the G5 to an iPhone to a cell tower to the Dexcom cloud servers to the internet to my tablet/phone to alert me remotely of a low which I then have to call and communicate what to do for a caregiver.
Rather. I would discuss this in advance with the caregiver. (ie - teacher - whatever). The G5 will transmit directly (via Bluetooth) to the iPod/iPhone. The iPod/iPhone will immediately alarm when it hits what you have configured as the LOW ALERT - perhaps 65 or 70 - whatever you pick. There is a hard coded URGENT LOW (I forget exactly what they call it) at 55. You can not change or configure this. So this is the backup to your configurable low alert.
The caregiver with your child should hear the LOW ALERT at 65 (or 70 or whatever) and if not acted upon, will also hear the URGENT LOW at 55. As well, it will not be long for you to teach your child that when this alert goes off, they need to ask for help (and soon old enough to get a snack or whatever).
Point being - this should all happen local to your child. You do not need to be in the middle of that. I totally understand wanting to get the cgm data feed but my suggestion is not make yourself as a dependent link but rather more of an FYI.
Just a thought. Obviously each parent decides themself what is best for their child.
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Along the same lines as what Thomas is saying, having the regular Dexcom receiver in her backpack / desk / on the teacher’s desk / or wherever makes the most sense, and having the alerts set on it also, can be a good backup to help make sure the teachers can hear an alarm and there is some redundancy.
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Totally.
The new Touchscreen Receiver has the 3-hr data backfill so if that is sitting on the teacher’s desk, then it will pick up a good data dump even if the child is out and about like at recess or whatever. (ie - data dump of past 3 hours when child comes back in range from being outside or whatever)
The 20 foot range thing - take that with a grain of salt. You have to see it in operation to know what it will do. I understand what the documentation says. But I have seen this thing work at 65 feet away. I would have high hopes for the Dexcom Receiver to function well in a classroom environment.
EDIT: The last paragraph may have come across as implying the Dexcom Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) range is simply greater than advertised. Not what I meant. More that the range is not easy to predict in advance for a given environment. I have seen it fail to connect at 2~3 feet. I have seen it successfully connect at 65 feet.
I have given up trying to predict how far this thing will work in a particular environment and instead just give it a try. However for a given environment, it does appear to be relatively consistent for that environment.
By “environment” I mean:
from a particular bedroom to a different bedroom
From one floor of the house to a different floor
From a dining room through a glass sliding door into the backyard
Inside a car
In a gym
Walking in a mall
IMHO you just have to try it and see where it works. Trying to figure out the WHY of it might drive you a little crazy. I more or less gave up on the WHY and just roll with the realities of it.
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Hi Eric,
Where do you see the large pocket spi belt can go down to 18 inches?On amazon it said 25-47 inches. I might be looking at the wrong thing.
Thanks for your help!
My daughter is pretty aware when she hears her dexcom and what it means. She also will tell me when she feels shaky and she feels brave enough to tell an adult too. The good thing is, the preschool is on the same road as me, 2 minutes away and I can always call or come in anytime. The director and teacher are aware of the alarms on the dexcom and what to do to treat it. We are starting off slow. She will only be going 2 days a week for 2.5 at a time. It will take a few weeks of figuring it all out. She has only been under my care since diagnosed at age 1, so this is all very overwhelming and scary for me.
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This all sounds like a good approach. I would keep rolling with this.
Use the remote monitoring as something extra. But let your child and the teachers be the first ones to treat the lows. (Again - just a suggestion.) Going forward this is entirely feasible and workable.
I called them and talked to the rep.
The thing on Amazon might be a generic type of description. Or it may be that they consider a certain amount of the elastic is generally used to hold it in place.
But if you think about it, if you detach the slides and cut some of the elastic to shorten it, and then reattach the slides, you can get it all the way down to 8" if you wanted (the length of the actual pouch).
If you are using it for a 20" waist, you could have the 8" pouch, plus 12" of elastic (6" on each side of the pouch) to still give you some elasticity for comfort.
I have modified the heck out of many SpiBelts for races. They have a double pocket one, but I made a triple pocket one to hold enough stuff.
If you get it from Amazon and you don’t think it will work, you can send it back for a refund.
I think SpiBelt would be a good thing to start with and customize if you are handy with sewing.
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Your the best Eric. Thank you! Makes sense.
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we used Spi Belt (which makes a smaller size) – but we actually now use custom undershirts with pockets for both pump and phone.
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I wonder if putting her phone in her back pack would work? The backpack would be in the small classroom near her hanging up…And then she carry her dexcom receiver in her kids spibelt? That way she could still respond to her alarms along with the teachers. If she goes on the playground, she would bring her backpack. It’s a small preschool.
our son has been taught to carry his “suitcase” from station to station at his daycare, so you could definitely do that. The only issue is if the backpack is a little too far you won’t get data. But you can always experiment.