August 9, 2001
Daily Care
Question from Auckland, New Zealand:
My 10 year old son, just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes five weeks ago, is only taking 6 units of NPH in the morning, and his range has been between 4-7 mmol/L [72-126 mg/dl] with few lows and few highs(up to 10 mmol/L [180 mg/dl]. His doctors say that because he is in his honeymoon stage, his blood glucose should stay between 4-7 mmol/L [72-126 mg/dl], but I hear different stories of this range being low. Are we on the right track? Is there anything else that we can do to improve his blood glucose levels?
Answer:
It is true that people with recently diagnosed type 1 diabetes in the honeymoon are asked to keep blood sugar levels as normal as possible in order to prolong their endogenous reserve of insulin. Sometimes, your son will have numbers close to hypoglycemia ranges, but I don’t think this is any great danger given the low dosage of daily insulin.
I think the insulin regimen and the reference sugar values your doctor asked for your son and his self-monitoring numbers are all fine. You’re are on the right track indeed.
MS