April 22, 2006
Diagnosis and Symptoms, Other
Question from Almont, Michigan, USA:
I suspect my five year old son may have diabetes. He gets frequently thirsty, has nocturnal enuresis, and there is a family history. I myself had gestational diabetes two years ago. With my blood sugar monitoring supplies from two years ago, I started doing fingersticks on my son before our doctor’s appointment this week. I wanted to have some numbers available to the doctor prior to our visit.
I have two questions. First, my test strips expired in April 2005. Would this significantly alter the results of the fingersticks, being over a year expired? Also, I’ve done morning fasting readings and two hour postprandial readings. The two hour postprandial readings tend to run between 110 and 120 mg/dl [6.1 and 6.7 mmol/L]. However, his fasting readings in the morning also tend to run between 104 and 125 mg/dl[5.8 and 6.9 mmol/L]. I’m not sure why his morning fastings would be as high or higher than his postprandial readings. I will see our family physician this coming week.
Answer:
You cannot rely on outdated strips, so go buy some fresh ones and recheck. Also, check the batteries if these are old meters.
The fasting values you obtained, if the strips are still okay, are borderline elevated, but the postprandial values are probably normal glucose excursions. So, this could be an early manifestation of diabetes and it would be prudent for you to discuss this with your health care team and, perhaps, also seek consultation with a knowledgeable pediatric diabetologist as well for antibody testing, genetic testing for diabetes variants like MODY, etc. Many, but not all, would also suggest limiting carbohydrate intake and making sure this child is not overweight/obese as reasonable and prudent dietary approaches.
SB
