March 27, 2009
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Hollywood, Maryland, USA:
My son was found at the top of the stairs, sweating, racing heart rate and stating that he could not walk and was confused. His blood sugar was 51 mg/dl [2.8 mmol/L]. He had 3 ounces of orange juice. Thirty minutes later, when his blood sugar was 105 mg/dl [5.8 mmol/L], he vomited and complained he was very tired and just wanted to sleep. I rechecked his blood sugar an hour later and it was 168 mg/dl [9.3 mmol/L]. He had a glucose challenge. At three hours, his blood sugar was 54 mg/dl [3.0 mmol/L]. At home, his blood sugars have been running from 61 mg/dl [3.4 mmol/L] to 158 mg/dl [8.8 mmol/l]. The higher blood sugars are two hours after eating. The glucometer is calibrated correctly, because my sister is a type 1 diabetic. He has repeated the above situation three times. Is this something about which I should be concerned?
Answer:
This could be the earliest stages of developing diabetes and could also just be hypoglycemia. I would suggest that you arrange for consultation with a pediatric endocrinologist with the likely recommendation of ongoing blood glucose monitoring and a meal plan that avoids simple sugars, provides some protein/fat every three hours. This usually works if it were only meal-food related hypoglycemia..
SB
