Question from New York, USA:

My five year old son just recently has been experiencing polydipsia and polyuria, extreme fatigue, especially in the morning (at times he’ll sleep in until 11 a.m.), grouchiness, moodiness, and weight loss (one pound in two weeks). His pediatrician ordered some bloodwork, fasting glucose, postprandial and basic metabolic panel. His fasting glucose was 65 mg/dl [3.6 mmol/L], while his postprandial blood sugar was 165 mg/dl [9.2 mmol/L] and everything was fine except for his CR (Creatinine) level was low (.4) on his metabolic panel. We bought a glucometer, an (Accu-Chek Advantage) and some days he’ll be fine, anywhere from 70 to 110 mg/dl [3.9 to 6.1 mmol/L] while other days, he’ll range from 139 mg/dl [7.7 mmol/L] to over 222 mg/dl [12.3 mmol/L]. My meter only reads to 222 mg/dl [12.3 mmol/L] and one evening he got HI which meant over the 222 mg/dl [12.3 mmol/L].

His pediatrician is thinking that he may have type 2 diabetes. It seems like his body is still producing some insulin because his fasting was low, but, as he eats, his body isn’t producing enough to keep the levels within normal range. We find this especially true with his diet. On his good days, he’ll have a pretty good diet; on his not so good days, his diet may be high in carbohydrates. She had also suggested that he may have what they call diabetes insipidus, which means he has the symptoms but it’s related to the pituitary gland and not to the pancreas. From my understanding, this isn’t true diabetes, that his sugar levels should be fine, that those who have diabetes insipidus just experience the extreme thirst and urination.

So, to me, he seems to have type 2. I’m waiting for her to fax a request to the laboratory so we can do a three hour Glucose Tolerance Test and an insulin level. This will hopefully give us a better understanding of what’s going on. Is he just in the beginning stages of type 2? I’ve heard of the honeymoon phase that some experience in the beginning, but don’t truly understand it. Is it for someone who’s already on insulin or someone who’s just newly diagnosed? Right now, he just has a pediatrician. Once his laboratory work is done and comes back, she’s going to refer us to a pediatric endocrinologist. It just seems like the process is taking forever. My little guy is only 39 pounds at the age of five and just this past week we found that he lost a pound, so, now he’s 38 pounds. This seems skinny for the usual with type 2, but it’s predominant on my side of the family.