Two months ago, before we knew he had diabetes, my grandchild almost died. His blood sugar was over 1365 mg/dl [75.8 mmol/L], and he was in ICU almost two days. Since then, he is much better, but over the holidays, I noticed he is not quite the same. He has trouble remembering work at school and chores at home, and I don’t think it is willful. Sometimes you have to nudge him to get his attention.He has make up work for school and does it but can’t remember if he turned it in or where it is at. The school is working with him, but now he is going to fail because of forgetting to do work. Sometimes you have to nudge him to get his attention. Am I wrong in thinking that this could be from his diabetes?

With that very high blood sugar at the time he was first diagnosed it is very probable that your grandson had some degree of cerebral edema (brain swelling) which could have influenced the behavioural and cognitive changes you describe. These might also be part of an emotional response to the demands of a very new lifestyle.

In all probability they will be temporary, and, in the meantime, what he needs is a lot of family support over remembering chores and accomplishing home work. If the problems are not resolving in a few weeks, it would be important to seek help either from the Medical Social Worker on his diabetes care team, the school psychologist or better still from both. They should be able to disentangle the problem and help the parents and the school develop a plan so that he can catch up with his schooling.

DOB