My seven year old son has had symptoms of hypoglycemia for three or four years (lack of energy, vomiting, nausea, headache, clamminess, paleness). All of his blood tests have come back normal, but they did not test his blood sugar. My doctor said that the best way to test for low blood sugar is to do a home blood glucose test when he is symptomatic. What is considered a normal range for a child of this age? Are his symptoms typical?

The symptoms you list could be from hypoglycemia but there are also many other possible causes for such symptoms. It is easiest to do home blood glucose monitoring with one of many available Blood Glucose Meters using a small lancet to get a small drop of blood and get a blood glucose readings within five to 15 seconds. Normal blood glucose readings are 60 to 99 mg/dl [3.3 to 5.5 mmol/L] before eating and up to 126 mg/dl [7.0 mmol/L] (some would say 140 mg/dl [7.8 mmol/L]) after eating. Hypoglycemia is defined as values less than 60 mg/dl [3.3 mmol/L] WITH CLASSICAL SYMPTOMS. Many people, including kids, have occasional lower values, but without symptoms, this is not so important. In my experience, most kids with hypoglycemia respond to a meal plan that avoids simple sugars (soda, juice, sugared drinks, candy) and has three meals plus three snacks so that there is never more than three hours between eating. ALL such meals and snacks should have some fat and protein. This eliminates hypoglycemia like symptoms about 95% of the time.

SB