April 28, 2009
Other
Question from India:
My three and a half-year-old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes last year. He is on insulin shots (30/70 Mixtard) and his HbA1c has been in the 6.5 to 6.9 range. The rest of his development is normal and he was speaking fluently since he was 28 months old. Over the past three days, he has been stuttering a lot and experiencing trouble while speaking. When he is asked to repeat after me, he speaks okay but when he is narrating something or talking, he repeats syllables and gets stuck on words. Sometimes he keeps on repeating a word in a sentence and cannot go further and gets frustrated. Is it due to a sugar imbalance?
Answer:
Did you check your son’s blood sugar while he’s presenting the speaking troubles? I think that, given his insulin regimen that is based on Mixtard, a premixed insulin that is not the best for a small child, those troubles might be due to low blood sugar perhaps combined with hypoglycaemia unawareness. You may wish to ask your son’s diabetes team if there are other insulin options available for your son, such as short and long acting analogs.
MS
