June 8, 2007
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Laredo, Texas, USA:
I am wondering if there is such a thing as moody diabetes. My three-year-old daughter has been hospitalized for having very severe urine infections and they all had blood in it. They sent me to a doctor that never even touch her. He just looked at her glucose sheet and said she is okay, just keep sweets away.
Today, I took my son, who has ADHD, to the doctor’s. I mentioned my daughter’s situation to the doctor and he told me to go to a specialist in Corpus Christi. I haven’t gone nor have I scheduled an appointment. Is there such a thing as moody diabetes? Should I go that far to get the same answer? I don’t mind the distance, but I just want to know if I will be looking into nothing. How can I help my daughter? Does she need any help? The hospital even gave us a glucose machine and I check her every day. Yesterday, her blood sugar was 214 mg/dl [11.9 mmol/L], but it went down to 61 mg/dl [3.4 mmol/L] within an hour. I made her go jump on the trampoline. My mother, a type 1 diabetic, told to make her sweat so her blood sugar could go down.
Answer:
She may have an early form of diabetes since it is never normal to have blood glucose levels in the 200s mg/dl [over 11.1 mmol/L]. How to treat her at this stage is often difficult. I would urge you to see a pediatric diabetes specialist to do the special testing needed. Testing her blood glucose levels frequently will be very helpful for you to know what is going on and also to share with the diabetes consultant. For now, avoiding simple sugars will probably be helpful since then her body needs less insulin production. Special antibody testing would also help to decide if this is diabetes, what needs to be done, followed and what to expect. There are excellent pediatric diabetes specialists in Texas who should be able to answer these questions and set up appropriate follow-up for you and your child, so please call them.
SB
