October 13, 1999
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, USA:
Our 11 year old daughter was recently diagnosed (3 weeks ago) with Type 1 diabetes. She had glucose level of 310 after having a higher than normal sugar intake over a vacation period. She has not had a reading anywhere near this level, usually about 150 or less. She is not taking insulin — we are trying to control this through diet and exercise. Is there a chance that she could have been misdiagnosed? We understand that there is a ‘honeymoon’ period — but most of her fasting readings have been in the 70’s – 100 range.
Is it possible that with a growing child her pancreas might not be developing as fast as her body to take care of her insulin needs to control sugar?
Answer:
A glucose level of 310 in a 11 year old girl is generally diagnostic for Type 1 diabetes as your daughter has been already diagnosed. I don’t see any possibility of misdiagnosis if a proper diagnostic evaluation was done. Any sugar intake can’t justify that high value.
She’s now on honeymoon that invariably ends after a variable time, probably not longer than few months. I’d advise you to start insulin treatment from now on (even if at a very low dosage) though she doesn’t seem to need it because it is thought that this could prolong her honeymoon phase as well as provide her a better future outcome of the disease.
MS
