My eleven year old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes one month ago and is receiving two shots a day. His diabetes nurse told us not to worry about his blood sugar level while sleeping at night unless it was below 120 mg/dl [mmol/L] before evening snack. If it is, we are to double the snack, check his blood sugars at midnight and 2:00 am, and treat low blood sugars if necessary. Is that the only time that we need to check his blood sugars or should we be checking during the night routinely, regardless of his numbers? I’m concerned because I’ve talked to another parent who always checks her son twice at night.

Since your son has newly diagnosed type 1, he most likely is still making some insulin so I expect his current insulin dose is relatively low. This means he has some built in protection from lows, and you are not the only source of his insulin. Your nurse is being very conservative at this point. Most new patients don’t have a lot of trouble with hypos unless they ignore the low glucoses they are seeing.

As you have diabetes longer and replace more of the insulin, then the balance and timing of the insulin does become more of a problem, but still I don’t tell every parent to check every night at 2 am. Maybe something has triggered this response in your friend’s child. I think you have to learn more about your child’s diabetes and take care of his specific needs.

LD