icon-nav-help
Need Help

Submit your question to our team of health care professionals.

icon-nav-current-questions
Current Question

See what's on the mind of the community right now.

icon-conf-speakers-at-a-glance
Meet the Team

Learn more about our world-renowned team.

icon-nav-archives
CWD Answers Archives

Review the entire archive according to the date it was posted.

CWD_Answers_Icon
May 24, 2005

Diagnosis and Symptoms

advertisement
Question from Clifton Park, New York, USA:

My five year old daughter had one night of excessive urination. She was up during the night three times and she never gets up at night. She kept telling me she was thirsty. I took her to the pediatrician to be checked for a urinary tract infection. My daughter was sent to the ER (Emergency Room) because her blood sugar level tested at 404 mg/dl [22.4 mmol/L] at the pediatrician’s office. Two hours later, at the ER, she tested at 150 mg/dl [8.3 mmol/L]. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. We were admitted to the hospital through the ER for one night. We have seen several doctors over that course of time.

So far, she has not been given insulin. Even though everyone has told us that she can’t bring down the levels on her own, she has managed to do just that on a regular basis. We were sent home and instructed just to monitor her levels. We test her four times daily. So far, she has not gone past 280 mg/dl [15.6 mmol/L] and she stays pretty low the majority of the time. She was 74 mg/dl [4.1 mmol/L] when I tested her this morning. My pediatrician is puzzled and even the pediatric endocrinologist we saw claims that she is a unique case. Could it be something else? Or, could it be that her body is fighting this? She obviously still brings it down herself. We need to know what we can do to help her body continue to fight off this disease. The doctors have never even actually confirmed that it is diabetes, they just say that they don’t know of anything else that would cause her blood sugar level to have been so high. Any light you could shed on this subject would be extremely helpful.

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

It is likely that your daughter has diabetes, but is in the very early stages. She will require frequent testing for the next few months and will likely require insulin very soon. I would suggest that she be closely monitored by either your pediatrician or pediatric endocrinologist who can best assist you with any further testing, a program for testing at home, and any indicated treatment.

In the early stages of diabetes, the pancreas still produces insulin, but at a diminished rate. That may be why you see occasionally normal blood sugars. Some children in the very early stages of diabetes do not require any or don’t require large amounts of insulin. If this is diabetes, then she will eventually require insulin for her treatment.

MSB