Question from Long Island, New York, USA:

Since January of this year, I have been monitoring my now three-year-old daughter’s blood sugars, as per her endocrinologist. Back in January, she exhibited occasional high blood sugars, but had no sugar in her urine. Her endocrinologist requested that I continue to monitor her blood sugar fasting and postprandially once or twice a day. The endocrinologist feels that my daughter does not warrant a diagnosis of diabetes at this time, but wants me to continue monitoring her because of occasional highs. We did have a period of about four weeks of very good/in range numbers both fasting and postprandially. Recently, my daughter’s blood sugars have again begun to rise both fasting and postprandially, however, it is rare that I do get a number over 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L] (highest recently being 214 mg/dl [11.9 mmol/L], retest 212 mg/dl [11.8 mmol/L], along with thirst and urination every 20 minutes.) Although testing has become routine for her at this point, I feel it’s most likely not necessary to continue testing unless her symptoms become consistent. The doctor advises against stopping testing. She feels that any time a number is over 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L], there is something wrong somewhere and that, at any time, my daughter’s pancreas could fail. Is it truly possible that she would be in such a slow, long onset of diabetes? Typical numbers for her are anywhere from 85 mg/dl to 98 mg/dl [4.7 to 5.4 mmol/L] fasting. One hour after breakfast, a typical number would be 180 mg/dl [10.0 mmol/L] maybe a bit higher but, an hour later, she always goes down below 120 mg/dl [6.7 mmol/L]. She was negative for antibodies in January. What is your opinion?