April 29, 2001
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Canton, Ohio, USA:
I have type�2 diabetes and checked my 10 year old daughter’s blood sugar one day which was over 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L]. I was concerned about my daughters reading and have since been monitoring. Out of the recent before meal readings, she has had two over 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L] two below 100 mg/dl [mmol/L], four between 100 and 120 mg/dl [5.6 and 6.7 mmol/L], and three between 120 and 200 mg/dl [6.7 and 11.1 mmol/L]. She has excessive thirst, urinates often, often tired, and she tends to get shaky in between meals. She has had some problems with vaginal tenderness which we thought could have been a urine infection, and she also has the ring of darker skin around her neck and on her elbows, which I always thought may be due to her mixed race of African American/White We have diabetes in both sides of our family.
These all seem to be symptoms that would point to the need for further testing. Do you agree that these are good reasons to be concerned? Are these readings normal for a young girl of her age group?
Answer:
Your daughter needs to see her doctor and have some lab glucoses done, and maybe even a hemoglobin A1c. Likewise, I would order islet cell antibodies. These may give clues about early type�1 diabetes.
If your daughter is having persistently elevated sugars, you might talk to her doctor about insulin intervention. It isn’t proven to be effective yet, but should be considered at least. I think some of the numbers you present are elevated and demand further investigation. Normal fasting is below 110 mg/dl [6.1 mmol/L] and usually well below 100 mg/dl [5.6 mmol/L] in children. Postprandial glucoses are less than 140 mg/dl [7.8 mmol/L] and usually well below.
LD
