January 13, 2004
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from New Haven, Indiana, USA:
My 3-year-old son recently went in for his yearly check up and we mentioned that diabetes is very common in my husband’s side of the family. My husband’s mother, brother, sister, aunt and nephew all have type 1 diabetes. So our doctor did a blood sugar test. It had been about four hours since my son had eaten lunch and about 20 minutes since he ate a regular size candy cane, and his blood sugar was 194 mg/dl [10.8 mmol/L]. The doctor decided to go ahead and do a whole panel of fasting blood work to check for diabetes. Yesterday they called and said that we needed to come in and do the test again because he had low insulin levels. What is a low insulin level? Does that mean he has diabetes or will develop diabetes?
Answer:
A blood sugar of nearly 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L] is always abnormal. Hard to tell you about insulin levels since they depend upon the lab, what the concomitant glucose level was, when food was last eaten, etc. If there is any question, you should consult with a pediatric endocrinologist. Any symptoms such as weight loss, enureis, night time urination, excess day time urination, excess thirst, blurry vision would all be possible symptoms of early diabetes.
SB