April 12, 2002
Hypoglycemia
Question from Melbourne, Florida, USA:
My 11 year old daughter, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two and a half years ago, had relatively good control for the first year, but since then she seems to be very brittle. Last week, we went to the ER after battling chronically low numbers for about four days even though she was eating high carb foods every 15 minutes to half hour. Of course, the team wondered if she had been getting too much insulin, but I had been giving her the shots myself, and watching carefully and am pretty sure she wasn’t. They reduced her intake of insulin by a third and ran some tests. She is still experiencing the lows, but fewer and farther between. She seems to rebound from the food after about five hours. The doctor spoke of insulinoma, or absorption problem (of which she has no symptoms). Does insulinoma occur in a person with diabetes patient? Can you tell me what type of digestive disorders they may be testing her for? Are there any other possibilities, such as thyroid problems?
Answer:
A person with type 1 diabetes can get an insulinoma or absorption problem or whatever illness, the same as any other person. In addition, some of them are more common among people with diabetes patients such as autoimmune endocrine disorders.
In your daughter’s case I’d think of checking her for celiac disease as well as for thyroid disease. If all of these tests l turn out to be negative, I will ask your pediatrician for a referral to a endocrinologist for further investigation.
MS