hypoglycemia

[Guest guest]

Hi-

I had just written about my SGA infant who is now 4 months old.

She was proportionately small at birth- head, height and weight well

below 3rd percentile. Her head is now 3rd percentile, length 3rd

percentile and weight below 3rd percentile. She only takes 60-90ml at

a time. Do I need to worry about hypoglycemia? I read the general

info from Dr. H and it seems to say that SGA/RSS infants are at risk

for hypogycemia due to their large head size compared to their body.

Since she is small for everything do I still need to worry about

hypogycemia

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

I suggest asking your peds to send her for a hemaglobin A1C.

This gives them a number on where her sugars are on a regular basis. explain

to them about Rss and Sga and the hypoglycemia issues. This way it's a one

stick thing instead od accu checks everyday. If her HA1C is off then you know

that you will have to check her sugars on a regular basis.

Good luck,

Chrissy

[Guest guest]

,

I think the jury is still out on your question. Most of the RSS

kids that I know who had hypoglycemia of some sort in infancy have

had it continue into the later childhood years, but I don't know if

it goes on into adulthood.

What I can do is tell you about our experiences with Max and my

theory about it all.... Max has had blood sugar and ketone issues

his whole life. They were particularly bad during his first 5 years

of life. They probably would have been an issue even longer, but he

had a g-tube and was on pump feedings for many, many years. Each

time we tried to take him off the pump at night, he would wake up

with ketones. Dr. H. said he had ketotic hypoglycemia. But now

that he is older and there is more muscle and fat on him, I have

seen that the ketone issue is not as severe. That would make

sense. He now has some stores in case he needs them. Even with the

recent episodes of hiccuping and vomiting, he did not spill ketones,

something that would have put him in the hospital immediately just

two years ago.

I think that those kids who grow up and build up this muscle and fat

are able to fight off the blood sugar and ketone issues. They have

the storage of glycogen, etc. to have in reserve in case they get

sick. But the true test to that theory will be when and if Max gets

a stomach bug. So far he has not had one and usually by this time

he has caught something. I hope I am not jinxing things right now.

We've been through enough!

I also think that as some of your kids get older and the doctors are

able to look for more patterns and have this larger population to

look at, your questions will be answered. There have been very few

at Max's age who have been identified, at least with his problems.

Granted, he is a more complicated case, but still even Dr. H. does

not have more than a handful out of the over 200 that she takes care

of or consults with. (Max was her third RSS patient. He was about

a year old when she first saw him.)

Jodi Z