Hi my 15 year old daughter is T1D. She currently has a T-Slim pump and Dexcom G6, and IPhone SE to manage her diabetes.
I would like her phone out of her bedroom at night as it is becoming an issue with sleep and a few other problems we are having with phone use at this age.
Does anyone have any solutions about how we can still receive BG info and alerts from her dexcom overnight but not have her phone in her room. My understanding is that both her pump and phone need to be within close distance for the system to work.
Thank you
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Hi @PippaM,
Welcome to FUD!
Yes, the phone needs to be close enough to pick up the readings. There might be some advanced technical answer that lets you get the reading without her phone being in her room. But as far as I know, there is not an easy answer to this.
Most all of the diabetes tech - like Dexcom Share and Dexcom Follow and Sugarmate and Xdrip - they all require the phone to share the CGM data. Like Sugarmate can call your phone if her BG is low. But it still needs to get the info from her phone.
Everyone has parenting advice. Mine is not any better than anyone else’s. But I do think this is a parenting thing more than a diabetes thing.
What would you do if she did not have diabetes and was misbehaving with her phone at night? I assume you would take her phone away, right? Same as any other kid.
So, same thing for her.
Her Tandem pump can cut her insulin if she is low. And if she goes high, the pump should give her more insulin. The pump does not need the phone to do that.
So my advice is this. If she does not behave responsibly with her phone, she loses it. The Tandem pump will have to handle the diabetes.
But don’t make diabetes the issue. Diabetes is not the issue. The phone is the issue. If you make diabetes the issue, it becomes damaging to her in many ways.
Anyway, that’s my take on it. But there are other parents here who might offer other ideas.
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I am the type 1 in my family, but have some practical advice on the phone issue with a teen. My daughter has been on some school trips where phone use in the evenings and overnight was prohibited, but I think the school didn’t want the responsibility of holding each child’s phone each night. The trip monitors actually gave each kid a “box” to put their phone in each night that stayed in the room with each kid, but locked so that the phone wasn’t functional to the teen (it could still charge while in the box). You could buy one of these and keep the key overnight with you so that if your daughter needed access to the phone (e.g., to shut off a low alarm), you would need to unlock the box, but the phone could stay with her (unused) all night. I’m sure a good amazon search would yield results?!
In solidarity with these tech issues and teen children – Jessica
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I did do a search on phone lock boxes. Some are time locks, one was a simple acrylic box that used a key. That one doesn’t appear to have a port to allow charging. This one may work. As long as the case is plastic it should remain connected Bluetooth WiFi and cellular.
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@PippaM Welcome to the site!
I am a pretty tough dad that doesn’t take well to my children not being responsible to follow the rules so I think you should look at @JessicaD recommendation seem to be a good & reasonable one.
Mine would be to get her a Dexcom receiver & put her on Multiple Daily Injections. I would lift the restriction in 2-3 weeks & I would let her know at the point she got her phone & pump back if she didn’t abide by the rules the next time it would be double the restriction & if there was a 3rd time she could just stay on MDI & permanently loose her phone.
Like I said I am a pretty tough dad maybe you should look at @JessicaD idea
Why would you take away the pump? That has nothing to do with the phone, which is the issue at hand.
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I agree with @bkh!
If you mix anything with diabetes into the punishment, it can cause long-term problems with how she views her diabetes.
Keep the phone punishment and the diabetes separate as much as you can!
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Great idea. I didn’t know these existed.
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Let me clarify if the pump had it’s own PDM or controller I would not take away the pump. I would only take away the phone.
Using Loop & the program is in my phone the only way I could take away my phone would be to go back to MDI 
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If I understood the original question correctly they want to prevent the phone from being used while still able to receive alerts on the parent’s phones.
This means the data and Bluetooth functions have to be operational. This is the reason I suggested this lock box.
No changes in BG and insulin management with hypo/hyper alerts to the adults.
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Yes, that makes sense. For you, the phone is the pump.
I am sorry, I wasn’t thinking of it that way.
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No worries. I wasn’t thinking of it the other way. My apology to @PippaM what works with my system was bad advise for her & her daughter’s system. The lock box that @JessicaD suggested is the best recommendation I see here. @CarlosLuis certainly refreshed my memory for the need to have the phone with active Bluetooth in order to follow.
So the winner is… The Lock Box 
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@SobeiT,
When I was a teen, all the phones had cords. 
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@Eric did it look like this? lol maybe longer cord
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Thank you so much everyone for your thoughtful responses. Yes remembering that the phone is the problem and not diabetes is imperative. I like the lock box suggestions and we may start with reviewing the parental controls on the iPhone to restrict what she can use it for after 10pm (only have Dexcom app operating) and then if this isn’t enough the next step is phone lock box.
Thanks again your wisdom and advice is really appreciated
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@SobeiT Nahh, it wasn’t longer, just stretched out! 
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I kind of need this
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Pray tell why? Are you making phone calls you’re not suppose to?
Right & it was a nasty 70s color yellow that went horribly well with orange shag 
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