CGMs are a great invention! They have helped so many of us regain control (and confidence) in our diabetes game. However, CGMs are only great when they are sticking to you. A loose fitting Dexcom does no good reading wise (or comfort wise) when it’s sliding in and out of your skin. Here are some of my tips for how to get Dexcom to stick – and stay on!
How to Get Dexcom to Stick!
Below are my three favorite ways to make sure Dex stays on. I would love to know what your favorite methods are so let me know in the comments below!
1. Dexcom Stickers
This is my favorite way to get Dexcom to stick, also why I put it as #1 on the list. Not only do they hold insanely well, but they are the perfect fit because they were made for your CGM. They are also super cute and have tons of patterns, colors, shapes and sizes. My favorite brand is Griff Grips, but I have also heard a lot of great things about SIMPATCH and RockaDex.
These CGM specific stickers hold my Dex on, for about 2 weeks. If I were to wear Dex longer than 14 days I would need to peel up the edges, cut them as far back as I can, and put on a fresh sticker.
The only thing with RockaDex is that I believe they are an Australian company, so at the bottom of their site you’ll have to change the currency to USD.
2. Medical Tape
Sometimes you don’t need your Dexcom to stay on for another two weeks… maybe you just want to get a few more days out of it… and that’s where medical tape comes in.
If I don’t need 2-week-sticking-power then I choose medical tape like OpSite Flexifix, Polyskin, Tegaderm, or KT tape.
The down fall with these is that since they are not made specifically for Dexcom or any CGM, you will need to make a cut out in the middle for Dex to poke through. Though I’m sure you could probably just not cut a hole and have the entire tape go over the CGM….I have never tried that tho, so I’m not sure how that would hold up.
3. Skin Prep
Another option to get Dexcom to stick is skin prep solutions. Before you put on a new Dexcom prep your skin with Skin Tac (available in wipes or a liquid solution) or Mastisol. Bonus sticking power if you then put a dexcom sticker on top!
Question of the Day
What is your favorite way to get Dexcom to stick?
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Shouldn’t the CGM be close to your pump? The picture shows it on her arm. How is that possible?
That’s what I love about the dexcom; it can go virtually anywhere on your body… arms, legs, back, stomach, chest. I have the Omnipod and it doesn’t need to be close to Dexcom to work – but they also don’t have the capability to talk to each other at the moment. I’m not sure about other pumps. I think the Medtronic 670 can talk to Dexcom, but I’m not sure that they’d have to be right next to each other… that would be a pain for site rotations since they each ‘expire’ at different times, dexcom g6 has hard shutdown after 10 days, and I think most pumps are around 3 days.
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I had no idea that you could get Dexcom stickers to hold on for around two weeks. My cousin is thinking about getting some Dexcom patches because he really wants to see how well they work and make sure that they last longer. It could be really nice for him to be able to get some from a professional so that he could try them out.
He should reach out to Dexcom! I’m sure they have dummy patches for him to try. Or even his Endo’s office might have some.
We get patches from dexcom that looks like tegaderm but fits dexcom 🙂
My husband uses the G6. He wears it on his stomach.
He is having a problem keeping his on for the 2 weeks due to sweating profusely as he works outside. We have tried Skin Tac as well as the Dexcom tape. Does anyone wear their G6 on their arm?
We were told it was not recommended.
Definitely try the arms! A lot less sweating, so it will be less likely to fall off. The only reason Dexcom can’t “officially” recommend the arms is because in testing they only used the abdomen. Arms and thighs are my favorite G5 spots.