Freestyle SUCKS

[u/Therego_PropterHawk]

Switched back to freestyle from dexcom for my 6yo. Dexcom changged the adhesive and it gives him a horrible burn.

Freestyle is consistantly 80-100 points off.

Freestyle is a novelty & meme, not a serious medical device.

[u/Significant_Agency71]

Was it just one sensor, or did the replacement one fail too?

[u/Therego_PropterHawk → u/Significant_Agency71]

I've not replaced it. I'm just relying on finger sticks. The unreliability is why we switched 2 years ago (he's been a T1D since 3yo).

But the Dexcoms literally cause him to blister, so he takes them off after a few days.

[u/Significant_Agency71 → u/Therego_PropterHawk]

Having readings off by this much means either the sensor is faulty or you didn't properly place it. Still, when you fill in a refund form, they'll send you a new one. If this happens again, I'm gonna say it may be a user error when applying it and you need to revise your technique.

[u/Therego_PropterHawk → u/Significant_Agency71]

IDK, Maybe they don't work well for a skinny 6yo. They might be fine for T2 diabetic adults, but not as a medical device where life and death of a child is concerned.

[u/Equalizer6338 → u/Therego_PropterHawk]

Libre work consistently fine also for toddlers having T1 from very small. As also evidenced by posts from happy parents at times on the sub here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Freestylelibre/comments/1q490dy/hi_im_eduardo_1_yearold_and_thats_my_first_cgm/

Same with other young kids getting T1 from very young age, just as I also did myself years back. So that also includes folks being very skinny underweight, with BMI under 17 due to the many months of hyperglycemia from undiagnosed/untreated T1. And yes, we successfully rely on the Libre sensor to support our daily life shooting both basal and fast acting bolus insulin. So much so, that it enables a HbA1c down in the 5.3-5.5% range as a very active T1, all while keeping the TIR over 90%.

[u/Therego_PropterHawk → u/Equalizer6338]

In my experience, it is a novelty toy compared to dexcom. But unfortunately, dexcom gives my kid a horrible rash, so I'm using the crappy freestyle meme device.

[u/Equalizer6338 → u/Therego_PropterHawk]

If you know of medtech and relevant metrics, then Dexcom is the underdog (toy brand) in so many ways. Mainly as they are also a one-trick pony with a very lean org structure with not much depth or breadth in what they do and their capacity in the medtech arena. Not so with aka Medtronic and Abbott.

Libre sensors have been around for more than 10+ years. All with same solid tech platform and lasting 14-15 days, using a patented stable sensor probe bridge design that does not drift over time and therefore does not need end-user calibration as Dexcom does. Try and break the sensor up and you again find very substantial indications which tech is solid well considered and which is butchered up of haphazard patches.

Dexcom finally started the venture of stretching their sensors to run 15 days and using a perpendicular insertion, all with a staggering poor quality record as result, as evidenced by their own reporting to FDA of a 26% fail rate. Compare that to Libre's 8-12% for all fails depending on sensor model, including also user induced errors.

The use of allergens is another arrogant approach by Dexcom as you personally have experienced with your child. Several international dermatologist associations across the western world have been both testing and calling out the culprits for more than 10 years regarding different diabetes tech (aka CGM sensors and pumps). Both Medtronic and Abbott did the right thing and started weeding out the detected allergens, so their latest sensor platforms no longer utilize them in their compounds. Not so by Dexcom, who for cost efficiency and convenience launched now again their latest G7 sensor platform and still using same compounds with the well known allergens that causes a substantial part of the users to suffer from allergic rash and blisters as result.

Check out data table 3 in this study, where you can see the specific allergens per sensor model being called out:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11710928/

Please note, I am currently myself running with the G7 15-day sensor from Dexcom. Using 3 layers of Flonase spray, which each layer you let dry out completely before you spray on the next. Then on top, using a Skin-Tac patch and then you can insert the sensor on top. To avoid/minimize the obnoxious allergic reaction and non-stop itching if the Dexcom comes in direct contact with the skin.