September 12, 1999
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Gainesville, Georgia, USA:
I have a 3 year old nephew who’s father is hypoglycemic. My husband is a type 1 diabetic who takes 4 shots a day. We’ve taken some blood sugar counts on my nephew as per his persistent requests. To our surprise, we got some very high results. We’ve gotten 190 pre meal but we got an 87 fast. Should we be worried? Over the phone a local doctor says not to worry unless it’s high on the fasting test. I’m still worried it could be something more; he does present some symptoms of a type 1 diabetic. Can you help me?
Answer:
The reason to diagnose diabetes is to treat. Since the fasting glucose isn’t elevated, one would not treat a 3 year old. He is right at the edge of being eligible for the DPT-1 for type 1. Maybe the family should look up a center and have him tested.
At least keep monitoring. But I have seen situations where the random elevated glucose does not develop into diabetes (at least for the years I was involved).
LD
