July 24, 2000
Diagnosis and Symptoms, Hypoglycemia
Question from Louisiana, USA:
We were having a problem with our daughter two years ago (she was three-and-one-half years old then), with behavior and sneaking into the candy. We took her and had her tested for a glucose problem and she tested with low blood sugar. Her test was a 56 mg/dl (3.1 mmol). Three months later she was retested (without fasting) and she tested normal but on the low end. Three months later the same thing. She is very shaky all the time, feels nauseated a lot, drinks and eats a lot, and has very bad mood swings. Since she tested normal/low two times does that rule out hypoglycemia?
She has three grandparents who are/ were insulin dependent (shots). Does that increase her chances of being that way too? Also my youngest child was a large baby at birth and is in the 90-100 percentile for age, height and weight. Does that increase their chances for diabetes too?
Answer:
I think that your daughter is not dealing with hypoglycemia at all.
Fasting blood sugar can be as low as 56 or even lower in children and this doesn’t mean true hypoglycemia. Then more testing ruled it out.
On the other end, a positive family history for diabetes (in this case in three grandparents) increase her risk towards future diabetes actually not more than 4-6% and this holds true also for a large weight at birth. The only way to decrease both risks is to stick to safe eating habits starting in childhood and keep her at ideal body weight.
MS
