October 22, 2000
Behavior, Hypoglycemia
Question from Riverside, California, USA:
My six and one-half year old son was diagnosed at age five. He is in the first grade, very smart, and does his school work well, when he does it. That’s the problem, he’ll sit in class and “space out” and do his work in his own time (ten minutes of work can take him one and one-half hours). He has proven he can do it quickly and completely when he is pushed. At home, I have to be right near him or he will not do his homework. I don’t think it’s boredom, I think it’s a motivational problem. His last hemoglobin A1c was 5.5%. Could this be related to his diabetes? Is this a learning disability? A brain thing?
Answer:
Perhaps he is having a lot of undetected lows. With a HbA1c of 5.5%, I would worry about the unknown lows. If he’s not low, then it’s not diabetes immediately. I always caution about them and believe that we shouldn’t let little children get low, if we can avoid it.
Obviously, children with diabetes can have all the other things children get: learning problems, attention deficit disorder, etc. Pursue them all, but be certain about the lows.
LD
