Question from Souix City, Iowa, USA:

My 18-month-old child was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on Monday. We’ve been at the hospital since then. We have not yet spoken with an endocrinologist or a pediatric endocrinologist, only the pediatrician doing rounds in the morning and the resident. The doctor told me today he doesn’t know what else to do. We’re at 1 to 25 insulin to carbohydrate ratio. Wer’e doing a sliding scale, correcting high blood sugars after meals with carbohydrate count corrections. We were at 341 mg/dl [18.9 mmol/L] at 2 a.m., again at 8 a.m. Then, he was 398 mg/dl [22 mmol/L] at 11. We’d done a correction and the long acting insulin at 9 a.m. At 2, he was at 75 mg/dl [4.2 mmol/L]. We had him drink juice and rechecked at 3; he was at 187 mg/dl [10.4 mmol/L]. At 5, he was at 440 mg/dl [24.4 mmol/L]; has had nothing to eat or drink since the juice. The doctors wanted to discharge us today. We weren’t comfortable leaving. Now, I want to be transferred to children’s hospital to see a pediatric endocrinologist. Do I just tell the doctors to make the referral? Do I call and tell them I’m coming? I need a second opinion.