August 28, 2002
Hypoglycemia
Question from Sherrill, New York, USA:
My seven year son, who was diagnosed with hypoglycemia when he was two and outgrew it when he was about five, has had three episodes in the past three weeks. The first one was scary because he woke up in the middle of the night saying he couldn’t get enough to eat. When we got up in the morning, I woke him up for church, and he was very lethargic. He drank some juice and then threw up about four times. Within one hour, he was back to sleep and slept for about four hours.
At about the same time, he had sores all over his legs that I thought were poison ivy. These sores moved to the genital are and are now all over his butt. The ones on his leg and front took about three weeks to go away. The ones on his bottom are starting to heal, but have been there for two weeks. He was released from the endocrinologist’s care when he was about five. Do you have any ideas?
Answer:
I regret that it is not easy to give much advice thorough this forum based on what you describe. I presume your child was seen by his general pediatrician. What did s/he say? Offhand, I cannot tie in the sores into and the ravenous hunger.
As far as recurrence of possible hypoglycemia, has anyone actually checked a glucose recently during one of these “spells” you describe? Your pediatrician or your former endocrinologist may be able to loan you a glucose meter to screen with, if you do not still have one from years before.
DS
