The Mystery of Increased Insulin Use

Earlier this week I posed about how Dylan had gone through about 125 units of insulin in 48 hours - a first for him. His intake is usually pretty consistent, with daily insulin ranging between 35 and 40 units per day, so using over 120 units in 2 days is alarming. Was it a pump/tubing issue? Faulty insulin? Major growth spurt? None of the above actually.

The mystery was solved when we woke up Wednesday morning to find a sick little boy, complete with nausea, a stuffy nose, and nasty cough. He stayed home from school all day Wednesday and then tried to return Thursday, lasting all of 15 minutes (I dropped him off at 8:45am and he called from the school office at 9:00am saying he wasn't feeling well enough to stay). This morning he woke up feeling a whole lot better, though still not 100%.

In the meantime, insulin dosage seems to have to returned to normal. We've been monitoring closely, but BG levels have returned to "normal" at his regular pump settings. Thinking back, I can't recall having experienced this before, where insulin dosage increased by 50% in the couple of days leading up to an illness, but then returned to typical amounts during the illness. Anyone else noticed this before?