July 12, 2005
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Brooksville, Florida, USA:
My three year old daughter has type 1. We have no family history of diabetes that I have been able to find. During a visit with family this past weekend, we checked my nephew, who is a normal sized 15 year old. He had a reading of 179 mg/dl [9.9 mmol/l].
I spoke with my endocrinologist this week during my daughter’s visit and he told me to have his ketones checked, then, do a fasting reading. He has had any where from a trace to moderate ketones for the past three days while my sister-in-law has been checking him. She also bought a meter and his readings have been anywhere from 68 to 130 mg/dl [3.8 to 7.2 mmol/L]. His fasting readings, so far, have been under 120 mg/dl [6.6 mmol/L]. Since he has ketones and has not had any high readings yet, should we just keep checking him till we see his numbers start going higher or should he be taken to a doctor for some test? He doesn’t have any other symptoms of diabetes at this time either.
Answer:
Often, the ketostix are hard to read at trace, over-read, that is. So, if it is not purple, it is likely okay. I would watch the sugars. A fasting reading of 120 mg/dl [6.6 mmol/L] is high..Children should have fasting readings from 70 to 89 mg/dl [3.9 to 4.9 mmol/L] at the most. Something may be up, but it hasn’t declared yet. I might see a doctor who could do some tests looking for risks for diabetes. There are a number of antibody tests that he might have and help with the risk for diabetes.
This is a difficult stage for doctors who don’t want to worry folks for nothing and don’t want to let a child get really sick with diabetes.
LD
