RE: Info on blood sugar tests / hypoglycemia in a 4 year old

[Guest guest]

Rae,

I think that sometimes our children can go years without anyone knowing they

are hypoglycemic because they never have an episode. This is perhaps

because as parents we have fed them every few hours (whether intentionally

or not) and that maybe they have never had all of the makings of an episode

in place. It is when are children are sick that they are the MOST

susceptible to these episodes. Our children generally do not take in many

extra calories (glucose). They also have a limited capacity to store the

glycogen (stored extra calories) they do make in their small livers and low

muscle masses. When these stores are gone, their bodies have nothing left

to burn. This is what causes the hypoglycemia and spilling of ketones.

I'll guess that was probably also spilling a good amount of ketones at

that time as well. Since she probably didn't drink anything while she slept

and then refused her morning meal, she had gone I'm guessing 12-14hrs

without any food (glucose). Her body simply didn't have anything left to

burn!

Call MAGIC and request docs H-26 and H-28. You can ask about downloading

them.

I hope this helps. Our daughter is also 4. She regularly eats every 4-6

hours without low sugar, but when she is sick. . . look out. She simply

doesn't have the extra fat stores to keep her body going without eating.

She must eat every few hours then or have a small tube feeding. Otherwise,

she is without symptoms the rest of the time!

As far as testing goes. We only test Alyssa when she is sick and/or

symptomatic. That is how we know whether or not we must go to the hospital.

If she will not/or cannot eat and her sugars are low we MUST take her to the

hospital for a D10 IV.

I hope this helps!

Dayna

_____

From: RSS-Support [mailto:RSS-Support ] On

Behalf Of sunrae_24

Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 10:26 AM

To: RSS-Support

Subject: Info on blood sugar tests / hypoglycaemia in a 4 year

old

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I posted, however I do try to keep up with

your posts, and I hope that everyone is keeping as well as they can.

My thoughts go out to those of you who are currently having a tough

time.

I realise there has been quite a few posts recently with regards to

blood sugar levels, however I wonder if anyone has any advice or

information on this subject for 4 year olds.

I had to take my daughter, , who is nearly 4 and has RSS, to A & E

today as she collapsed at home from what appears to be a

hypoglycaemic episode. She has not been well for a few days - she has

the onset of a cough, and was sick once yesterday and had a couple of

bouts of diarrhea plus a temp of 39.7 degrees, but on the whole was

rallying quite well, and responding to Calpol (not sure what you use

in the US - it's to regulate temperature) and her asthma inhalers.

She seemed really well this morning and I thought she had turned a

corner, but she refused her morning milk ( she has Nutrini Hi-

Energy). At 10.30am whilst watching TV she called through 'I'm hungry

mummy' (most unlike her!) and I went through to see what she wanted

to eat and she was flaked out on the floor, really really sweaty and

her eyes were rolled back in her head. But her temp was fine. I

thought it must be blood sugars (thank you to everyone who has posted

about this, as that's how I recognised the symptoms) and managed to

get her to drink some Ribena and then spoonfed her some cereal and

milk, although she was really floppy and her head was lolling around.

Then, after about 15 minutes of laying in my arms, she looked up and

started to chat about the telly, as if nothing had happened.

I took her to A & E, where a urine test showed that she has glucose in

her urine, and the doc said that she had most certainly experienced a

hypo. They also found that she had an ear infection (don't I feel

guilty for not noticing) and is starting on antibitotics for that.

They have written to her Endo requesting that they run tests for

diabetes and blood sugar levels.

I guess I wanted to ask what tests are likely to be carried out, and

also to ask isn;t it strange that should suddenly start to be

symptomatic of hypoglycaemia at this stage? I was always worried

about it as an infant (and therefore fed her every 4 hours until she

was 18 months including during the night) but she never displayed any

symptoms then. We also tested her blood sugars with a diabetic home-

test kit (on suggestion of our Endo) twice as an infant/toddler, but

all readings were within normal parameters.

Does anyone else have any experience of getting hypoglycaemia later

rather than as an infant?

Are there any medical papers which could be recommended to read about

it (I am a member of MAGIC, so could download them).

I am sorry for such a long post, however I really wanted to ask

people's advice, and I hope that you will all understand more about

what we are going through as it appears to be quite common for RSS

kids.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Love Rae, mum to , nearly 4, 25lbs10oz, 92cm, Movicol (for

constipation), asthma inhalers, no tube, no gh, not yet anyway