Pam
You are still doing it, when you back off the dose because of a too low preshot you are backing it off TOO FAR! Which is causing you to lose way too much ground with him.
If his normal dose is 1.75 then a reduction for a Big Chicken Shot it's 1.50 NOT .5u If you keep cutting it as much as you are he's going to be in an endless cycle of playing catch up. When you cut it that far back he loses most of his shed and has to spend time rebuilding it. If you want him to stay in good numbers you have got to put on the big girl panties and shoot when he's low so he can stay low. Backing the dose some is fine but you are taking way too far back when you do it.
You have to get over this fear of shooting low, especially if you are considering moving him to Levemir, it has a much later onset and thus a much later nadir. A good 95% of the time with Autumn I am shooting her nadir because she is a Levemir cat, I can do it because I know she will keep going up for at least 4-5 more hours. Even right now on Lantus he is going to keep going up once you shoot that low preshot for at least another 2-3 hours.
I want you to do me a favor and actually I think it will help you understand as well..this weekend run a full curve on him which means you are going to test him at amps, +2, +4, +6, +8, +10, and pmps. I want you to physically see how far he goes up before he starts coming down again. With every cat that I have walked off insulin including now Autumn I will shoot a full dose on anything above 50, but I can get up to check on them, in your case I would shoot a full dose on anything above 80 because of the rise before onset so that should get him up safely into the high 100s or low 200s.
Mel and The Fur Gang