February 23, 2002
Other Medications
Question from Crestview, Florida, USA:
Recently, when my 15 year old daughter was hospitalized with pneumonia, she received steroids and her blood sugar level increased which has never happened before. Her doctors put her on a diabetic diet until she was discharged, and we were told to go back to her normal diet when we got home. Should I be conscious of her blood sugar level from now on? Was this just a incident that will not happen again unless she is put on steroids?
Answer:
You should adopt the approach that this will not happen again unless she is put on steroids. The latter will make anyone less able to handle glucose loads and some will develop overt diabetes. I don’t know of any research looking at the relationship of reaction to steroids and future diabetes, but I don’t think you should worry.
KJR
