Juvenile Diabetes

[VisionaryMom]

Yes, I know that term's been dropped, but it's more universally understood.

DH has T1 diabetes, and so we've periodically monitored the kids. DD has been complaining a lot lately about headaches and joint pain (which I've posted about in Parenting) and just general malaise. Her fasting blood sugar yesterday was 109. There doesn't seem to be (that I can find anyway) an accurate scale for kiddos.

I'm wondering how to proceed. When DH was diagnosed, anything under 120 was within normal for a FBS rate, but I know now the standard has changed to 100. So, she's not terribly high, but she is only 3. Would you seek out further evaluation? Check her over several weeks? I'm tempted to just go ask for an A1C so that we'll have something better to use, but I don't want to do blood work if it's not necessary.

[logansmom109]

I would say it can't hurt to get her checked out just for your own peace of mind, but also try doing a few spot checks on her 2 hours after she has eaten something high in carbohydrate. That will give you a better indicator as to how her pancreas is functioning at this point. Many people have fairly normal fasting blood sugars at first, but are having very high blood sugars after meals. This is why there can be a delay in diagnosis since many doctors only check fastings. An A1c will pick up on this also too.
Good luck.

[ameliabedelia]

Yes, I agree to check her after meals.

Also, pay attention if she has other symptoms like excessive thirst. I have a friend whose son was diagnosed at a young age (2 or 3) and the main abnormal symptom he was excessive thirst.

[kjbrown92]

Not sure where you live, but those three symptoms you mentioned also could be lyme disease. If your DH has a glucose monitor, I'd check her a few times to see how it is. When my friends' kids were diagnosed they were really high.

[VisionaryMom]

When DS was born, we had a couple of meetings with medical professionals who really recommended a fasting number of small children, rather than a 2-hours after a meal number. I think that partly was because of how much kids tend to snack, but I don't know if DD is out of that range yet.

The other indicators - urination & thirst - have been difficult for me to discern. She actually doesn't seem to drink much. Each child has a water bottle to use throughout the day, and we drink water with meals. She has a glass of milk maybe every 2 days and very, very rarely has juice. Because we're mostly drinking water, I don't pay that much attention to her drinking habits.

With the bathroom, she still goes every time she feels a tickle in her bladder. I'm trying to work with her on completely voiding each time and not going immediately (partly because she seems to have to go every 2 seconds), but I don't know if the volume is enough that we should worry.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. The 109 just isn't high enough to set off alarm bells for me, but I know that it's high according to the new standards. We'll check her again a couple of times and then see how it goes.