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
October 19, 1999

A1c (Glycohemoglobin, HgbA1c)

advertisement
Question from Chitre, Herrera, Republic of Panama:

My five-year-old was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes almost a year ago. Since then, I’ve gotten more and more lenient about what he eats, when and how much. I try to follow a rough guideline concerning carbohydrate consumption, but it seems so cruel to have to fight with a 5-year-old over whether he can have a second helping of something as healthy as a banana! I don’t measure his blood glucose a lot (1 or twice a day, even skipping a day now and then) because he only receives one shot a day (1R, 7N in the morning) and I don’t see the point in measuring it more, especially since his fasting glucose is always within normal range. In spite of this, his A1c’s have been great – maximum of 6.1. Is the only number that really truly counts when judging control?

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

It sounds like your son is probably still in the remission phase and his pancreas is probably still making a lot of insulin. During this time, blood sugar control is fairly easy as the pancreas can still make a little extra insulin or less insulin when necessary. When this phase wears off and he is more dependent on injected insulin, it will be very important to be more careful with his meal plan and to do more frequent blood sugar testing.

You are right, it never pays to fight over food with a young child as it never works. On the other hand, it is important to try and have some control over what your child eats and learn to do this without fighting. Although many foods including banana’s are healthy, they still contain natural sugar and if eaten in excess will raise the blood sugar.

TGL