May 16, 2002
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Memphis, Tennessee, USA:
My husband and I both have a strong family history of diabetes, and neither of us has diabetes, but about two months ago, our four year old daughter had glucose in her urine during a routine medical exam. She has recently experienced vision changes, diarrhea, stomach cramping, and loss of appetite for eight days, and she went to sleep on the playground at school. To be specific, she fell asleep on the slide, told her teachers that she was really tired, and they allowed her to take another nap. (She is normally very hyper and hates nap time.) Then over the next two days, all she wanted to do was sleep. One day she took three naps. Her doctor repeated her urine analysis and blood glucose level and said that everything turned out fine, but she had not eaten when those tests were taken. With our strong family history, would it be wise to monitor her glucose level or should we leave it alone?
Answer:
You don’t need to wrack your brain any longer! If blood sugar as well urine analysis were normal at fasting this means that her glucose metabolism is fine. Leave it alone. Regarding prevention of a future diabetes, the best way is to teach your daughter later on when a little bit older how to avoid becoming overweight through a proper diet and how to adopt an active way of life increasing physical exercise.
MS
