My six-year-old has had chronic diarrhea for a couple years. We saw a gastroenterologist and ruled out food allergies plus gave up dairy and gluten. Her fasting glucose was in range and her A1c was 6.4. She went to the laboratory, drank one-third of the glucose syrup, got sick to her stomach and couldn’t finish, but her results came back borderline. Within the last six months, she has been vomiting at least once a week. The only thing in common when she vomits is high sugar content. Our family doctor says her tests didn’t imply type 1, but that was a year ago and she is not better. She is also very moody.

This does not sound like classical diabetes but her A1c was slightly high and you reported similar borderline sugar levels on the tolerance test. So, it is probably wisest to consult with a pediatric diabetes expert and get a referral from your primary care provider. Bring the actual laboratory results with you so that these would be available for review and comparison.

If she were really fully lactose free and gluten free, this should be for about three months to know for sure if these were possible explanations. There are tests that could be done to prove this more conclusively.

Similarly, sometimes a course of a reliable probiotic (i.e., Jarrow brand) taken several times a day for two to three weeks will solve such nonspecific and puzzling problems.

SB