My granddaughter has had diabetes since the age of four and will soon be five. Last night, she started to twitch and became totally incoherent. Thank God, it was caught in time, but now I worry about her blood sugar dropping while she sleeps and the possibility of her going into seizures. Is there some kind of monitor to alert parents that the child is having a seizure other than a baby monitor? Her parents are both sound sleepers.

The GlucoWatch blood glucose monitor has an alarm, but it has not yet been fully tested in children and anyway will not be available until early in 2001. It should, however, work well on a five year old’s leg and, combined with a baby monitor, should be able to alert the parents.

However, the treatment of this problem is mainly prevention. To begin with mother and father need to develop a blood sugar profile throughout the 24 hours which will mean some measurements in the small hours of the morning and to relate this to exercise, dietary eccentricities and stress. Once this pattern is established, it should become clear what times are vulnerable to hypoglycemia. Then, the parents will need to talk to the doctor about any changes in the timing, amount, and kind of insulin that may be needed.

DOB