Type 1 is tough, but our kids are tougher.
At the age of 5, my son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and it changed our lives forever. I'm not going to lie, it was hard. But we got stronger.
How Smile Sensors Began
Our way of coping was to embrace the technology that helps manage Type 1. The CGMs, the insulin pumps, the constant data. The problem was that we often struggled to keep these devices attached to my son's body. They came off in the bath, they peeled at the edges, they got knocked off in the playground. And every time a device fell off, the change that followed was a small ordeal in itself.
So I started hand-making stickers and drawing fun designs onto them to hold the devices in place. Sensor changes were upsetting enough without a device falling off mid-day. I quickly realised something I hadn't expected: the stickers made my son smile. Changing his devices became less traumatic for him, and for me. It is amazing how much joy a small sticker can bring to a child, and how powerful a distraction it can be when a device is being changed.
Designed by a Mother, for Children with Type 1
As a Surface Pattern Designer, I have used my professional experience to create beautiful, fun designs made specifically for children. I think about what my own children like, the colours they love, the words and characters they get excited about. That's where the designs come from.
What started as a craft project at our kitchen table has grown into a full range of overlay patches for the most common CGMs and insulin pumps, from FreeStyle Libre and Dexcom to Omnipod and Medtronic. Designs that transform these medical devices from purely functional kit into accessories children are actually proud to wear.
Why Design Matters When You Wear a Device Every Day
When a child wears a sensor or a pump, it's not optional. It's there at school, at parties, on holiday, in the bath. It's not a sticker you put on for fun and take off later. It's part of them for days or weeks at a time.
So the design isn't trivial. A patch that feels good to look at, that makes a child say "I want the dinosaur one" or "the unicorn one", changes the experience of living with Type 1 in small but real ways. That's what we set out to do, and what we still set out to do every day.
Our Mission Today
Smile Sensors exists to make life with Type 1 diabetes a little brighter, one patch at a time. We support the T1D community through our designs, and through our Charity Bear patches, where proceeds are donated directly to Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) to fund the research that one day, we hope, will mean families like ours no longer need patches like ours.
Until that day, you can find our full range of CGM and insulin pump overlay patches on the shop. Designed in Manchester, made for the T1D community, and quietly hoping for the cure.
Claire
Founder of Smile Sensors
