November 19, 2004
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA:
My child has experienced two occasions of low blood sugars and one with a blood sugar reading of 208 mg/dl [11.6 mmol/L]. She is thirsty all the time and doesn’t eat very well. One morning she was very hard to wake up and her blood sugar was 52 mg/dl [2.9 mmol/L]. Is it possible for a child’s blood sugar to be low and high without having diabetes?
Answer:
Such erratic blood sugars are very unusual. There are inherent problems making a diagnosis of diabetes or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) using a handheld blood sugar meter. Please talk with your pediatrician about your concerns. They can arrange for a full history and physical examination as well as any appropriate laboratory testing that may be necessary to help make a diagnosis, or better yet, to rule out that there is a problem, hopefully.
MSB
