My non-diabetic daughter is 14. We checked her blood sugar on several occasions. Most of the time, she had very good numbers. She has also had the higher end of normal two hours after a meal. My question is mostly about the two times where she was in the 60s mg/dl [3.3 to 3.8 mmol/L] two to three hours after a meal. These were not extremely active days. Could this be a precursor or warning for diabetes. She is 5 feet, 1 inch and weighs 87 pounds.

In the pre-diabetes diagnosis time period, there can be some periods of normal blood glucose, some low values and some high values. We think this means the pancreas function of the beta cells is not normal and intermittently over- or under-produces insulin in response to food. The best bet seems to be to avoid simple and large amounts of carbohydrates/sugars to try to “save” the pancreas from being so stressed. Nobody knows for sure if this helps, however. Monitoring makes sense since you do not have to guess so much. Be vigilant if there is a dramatic change in amount and frequency of urination, overnight urination, bedwetting or unexplained weight loss since these could all be signs that the hyperglycemia phase has started and insulin is needed.

SB