My 9 year old son was diagnosed with diabetes one year ago. He goes through a lot of mood swings, even when his blood sugar is good (100-200). Is this normal? This is the first winter since he was born, that he has not been sick every month. I truly believe that he is healthier now than he has every been in his life. I also have a daughter and I am wondering if I should consider taking her to the DPT-1 clinic to see if she could get diabetes in the future. Is this a good choice or not?

I think you should certainly have your daughter tested for antibodies at the DPT-1 clinic. Remember though that she may still get other forms of diabetes in later life even if this test is negative; but the likelihood of this will not be increase because of her brother having Type 1 now.

As to the mood swings, I think the first thing is to make sure that they are not related to low blood sugars and to do this you need to have a profile of these levels throughout the 24 hours. The fact that the mood changes come when he appears to have normal blood sugars may simply mean that these are a response to hypoglycemia a short time previously. If there seems to be no relationship between low blood sugars and mood swings then I think you should seek help, and the best person would be the Medical Social Worker in the diabetes care team.

DOB