May 29, 2000
Hypoglycemia
Question from Atlanta, Georgia, USA:
A friend of mine has a 12 year old daughter with insulin dependent juvenile diabetes (Type 1) since age 7. On one morning several days ago, she was unable to wake her daughter; after several minutes she was finally able to get her up. At that time took her sugar level which was at 38. She gave the child orange juice and her level went up to 186. Later that night her sugar level dropped back down under 30; she took the child to the hospital were the child remains as of today. The child’s sugar goes as low as 28 and back up to 400-500 with in the time frame of an hour. The doctors have not been able to stabilize her. They have changed insulin several times and they still have no clue as to what’s going on. Do you have any idea of what the problem may be? Or any suggestions on where we can go for info?
Answer:
Without knowing a great deal more detail about this difficult clinical situation it would be inappropriate to make any e-mail comment. I assume though that the child is under the care of a pediatric endocrinologist and he/she would be the person to contact for details.
DOB
Additional comments from Dr. Bill Quick:
This situation might well be clarified by monitoring sugar levels continuously for several days to try to sort out what’s happening in more detail. See The Continuous Glucose Monitoring System
WWQ
