October 12, 2000
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Grove City, Ohio, USA:
My three year old son was diagnosed with asthma when he was about 15 months old. I have noticed that he drinks a lot of fluids. Sometimes he will not want anything to eat the whole day, and he will just want to drink anything that he can get his hands on. His thirst is always been put off as his having a dry throat from the asthma medications. He seems to pee a lot, but mostly at night. He will pee sometimes right through his diaper, soaking himself and the bed. I read a question from another mother that her son was diagnosed with severe asthma and was on prednisone. My son has been on three different steroids (Chromilyn sodium, Albuterol and prednisone). He also has been on a cough medication with codeine. I am just curious and I would like an answer from someone who thinks that I am not crazy.
Answer:
It is quite understandable that you should be concerned that your small son may have developed a mild form of diabetes as a result of long term treatment of his asthma with steroids. In fact, I think it unlikely unless he has been losing weight or the frequent urination has been of recent onset.
The quickest way to be reassured is to ask your doctor to do a fasting blood sugar test. If this is not possible in the office it would be a good alternative to ask for a few urine test strips and to put these in the diaper. Remember though that, if the fasting blood sugar is above 110 mg/dl [6.1 mmol/L], it might be a stress response to white coats and needles and not evidence of impaired glucose tolerance.
DOB
