September 20, 1999
Hypoglycemia
Question from California, USA:
My son is 7 years old, very tall for his age, but also heavy. We try to regulate his food intake, and recently I have been trying to cut back on his carbs, because they seem to put weight on him. The main thing is that for years I’ve noticed that if he skips a meal, saying that he is not hungry, within an hour he is likely to have a major screaming temper tantrum about something, that will go on for a long time. Also, he has a little bit of allergy problem, not much, but recently, he was put on Preventol for asthma symptoms. In reading the literature, I noticed that asthma and allergies are also symptoms of hypoglycemia. Does this sound like a diagnosis for hypoglycemia, or am I being paranoid?
Answer:
I have never heard of asthma or allergies as being signs of hypoglycemia. As we have discussed in the past, the only way to diagnose true low blood sugar is to measure the blood sugar when the child is symptomatic using a tube with a special preservative in it to keep the blood sugar stable for hours. This blood specimen must be sent to a laboratory. A meter cannot be used.
TGL
