comorbidities, diabetes, Disability Hacks

How to Disable the Auto-off Function on the Tandem T-Slim Insulin Pump

Aviva Seigler

*Disclaimer: Talk with your endocrinologist before you do this. This stumped our endo and I am happy I found a way to disable this *

What Happened

A is my 11 year old autistic son. He is also a type one diabetic. He uses the Tandem T-slim x2. It connects with his Dexcom, which is a type of continuous glucose monitor (CGM). This allows us to know what his blood glucose is without having to pierce his finger all day. It allows him to be more of a kid and not testing continuously. The Dexcom even pushes his BG to my phone and my partner’s phone.

When I was setting up the pump, I just went through the default settings. DO NOT DO THIS. there is one setting that was causing him to wake up high. This is the auto off function. So, this function stops all insulin deliveries if the pump is inactive for a certain amount of time. This function is very useful for an adult, but for a preteen who likes to sleep in on the weekends, this causes high glucose.

We asked his endocrinologist. She did not know why it was doing it. She reached out to the Tandem rep, they had no idea. We were just vigilant in stopping it when it auto shut off. One thing about a child who is autistic and is so hyper focused, he ignores, does not hear or does not acknowledge the pump or Dexcom when it alerts him.

Anyway, I had to leave early for work this morning and saw his BG was a bit high. I called him into the room while I was getting ready.

I saw this:

Auto-off alarm (7a)

All deliveries stopped! No activity for more than 12 hours.

We bolused (gave insulin) for his high, it wasn’t above what Dexcom could read, thankfully. No ketones. So I sent him back to bed.

While with a cat, waiting for the cat to eat, I googled on how to disable it. It took a while and Tandem does not make this very accessible, so I am sharing with y’all on how to do it.

How to Disable this Function

After googling this, I was able to disable the function rather easily but the directions were hard to find.

Directions from Tandem:

The default for this alarm is preset to 12 hours. You can set it anywhere between 5 and 24 hours, or off. To customize this alarm, tap OPTIONS > MY PUMP > ALERTS & REMINDERS > PUMP ALERTS > AUTO-OFF. Note: it is always recommended that you consult with your healthcare provider before making any settings adjustments.

These directions are not very accessible.

A was very nice to allow me to take photos of his pump in order to show y’all.

Under pump options: touch “My Pump”
Then touch “Alerts & Reminders”
Then touch “pump alerts”
Then touch “12 hours” that is next to “auto-off”
There will be a pop up that comes up that says “This feature will stop all deliveries if there have been no pump interactions for 12 hours. Turn auto-off off?” You would touch the check mark.
Then you will see a screen with a toggle for auto-off. If it is green, it is enabled. If it is green, just touch it and it will be greyed out. After you do that, touch the check mark.
In the next screen, hit the check mark again, and it will be disabled.

Published by Aviva Seigler

Aviva Seigler is the executive director at Fierce Autistics and Allies. She is a writer, an activist, and an advocate. She is an LGBTQ+ autistic from South Florida, is married to a very supportive husband, and has six children. She has been fighting the CD protocol and other quack treatments since 2014. She is a veterinary technologist (LPN for pets). She has her associates and bachelors degree in Veterinary Technology from St. Petersburg College. She is very involved with scouting with her six children. Three of the children are autistic but all are Neurodivergent. Her hope is to bridge the gap between allies and autistics while fighting the pseudoscience that threatens all people, not just autistics.

3 thoughts on “How to Disable the Auto-off Function on the Tandem T-Slim Insulin Pump”

  1. You are my hero! this is the only function of the Tandem that I can’t stand! I use the phone app for bolusing, and rarely take the pump out of my pocket.

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  2. Thank you so much for help with this. I have repeatedly woken up with ketones because of this feature. This “safety feature” is a huge hazard and needs to be removed in Tandem’s next revision.

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  3. Thank you! This feature is so frustrating, my son would have beautiful sugars all night then the alarm would go off because he would be high.all because the pump would shut off for no activity.

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