June 17, 2000
Hypoglycemia
Question from Rochester, New York, USA:
Our 6 year old daughter has been complaining of shakiness for weeks now. My husband is a 30 year who has Type 1 diabetes. Finally, we insisted we check her sugar today and it was 27 just before lunch, 40 just before dinner, having had an ice cream sandwich two hours prior. She complains frequently of the shakiness and often of feeling as though she is going to throw up. At one year of age, my daughter was diagnosed with mild developmental delays (they also used the word mild CP). She is an extraordinary child, big personality in a little 35 pound body. They say hypoglycemia is unusual in children. What would this be?
Answer:
There are a number of reasons why your daughter can have hypoglycemia and your doctor or a pediatric endocrinologist will be of help towards the clarification of diagnosis. From my point of view, as a diabetologist, hypoglycemia presenting in a 6 years of age first degree relative of a Type 1 father could be an early manifestation of a prediabetes and it could be due to the inappropriate release of endogenous insulin from pancreatic beta cells suffering from autoimmune attack. I hope to be wrong though.
MS
