How to check blood sugar at home
with a glucometer.

Step by step

1. Read your meter’s instructions. Meters differ, including whether the strip goes in before or after the blood, so follow the directions that came with yours.
2. Wash and dry your hands. Use soap and warm water and dry them well. Warm hands make it easier to get blood. Skip alcohol swabs and wet wipes, which can affect the result.
3. Get a new strip and lancet ready. Put a new test strip in the meter, or have it ready, and a new lancet in the finger-pricker.
4. Prick the side of a fingertip. Press the pricker against the side of a fingertip rather than the pad. Warming or gently shaking your hand first helps the blood come.
5. Touch the blood to the strip. Hold the edge of the strip to the drop and wait. The meter shows the reading.
6. Write it down. Note the reading with the date and time, and anything that might have affected it.
7. Throw the lancet away safely. Remove the used lancet and put it in a sharps bin. Ask your pharmacist or diabetes team how to dispose of sharps where you live.

What to write down

MedlinePlus suggests recording the time of day and the reading, along with what you ate, the type and dose of diabetes medicine, any exercise, and anything unusual such as stress or being unwell.

Where to keep the log

A notebook, a printed log or an app all work, and many meters store their readings too. If you don’t use a phone, a written record is fine. Take the log, and the meter, to appointments so your doctor or diabetes team can look back over the readings.

Good to know

Don’t share a meter’s lancets with anyone, even family. No meter or strip is accurate every time. How often to check, and what your readings mean for you, are for your doctor or diabetes team to say.

Why there are no numbers here

This guide covers how to take and record a reading. It leaves out target ranges on purpose: what a reading means depends on the person, and that is your doctor’s call.