10 year old. Would like to rule out diabetes

[LauraD12]

Good evening/morning,

my 10 year old daughter had a bit of a funny turn on Saturday. She said she felt week/sick/dizzy and just not quite right (I was asking her to do housework as we had guests coming). I am not the most sympathetic parent in the world so I checked she’d had a drink (a class of water fixes everything in our house) and asked if she’d had breakfast, I can’t actually remember now if she had or not but I sat her at the table sorting socks with a boiled sweet and a glass of water.

My daughter was out shopping today with her big sister and I went to meet them and do some shopping of my own. she said felt wrong, sick/weak. She is just hitting puberty and going through a huge growth spurt so assumed she just hadn’t consumed as many calories as she had expended and said she’d only had a small cheeseburger for lunch. I suggested she sit out side the shop in the fresh air so she could take her mask off whilst i paid and grabbed her a drink - bought a non diet sprite as thought it would give her a quick burst of energy. She still wasn’t feeling good at the next shop so she sat in the car with her big sister. (After the event a few hours later I saw a post on her sister’s instagram account of her with a giant costa fruit smoothie)

We had dinner at 5.30-6 ish. At 7.30 she asked for a slice of toast (white bread and marmalade). 9pm she said she felt horrible again and nauseous this time. I checked in on her at 11.30 she said she still didn’t feel right. I remembered we had a blood glucose monitor in the cupboard so tested her - a reading of 6.9.

my gut feeling says it’s food related. My question is when should I test her again to rule out diabetes? And how many more samples should be enough to put my mind at rest?

she is usually very fit and well.

thanks in advance for your help and apologies for the long winded story.

 

[EllieM]

Childhood diabetes (T1 unless your daughter is obese) is generally pretty fast onset. Extreme thirst, possible bed wetting, weight loss are likely symptoms. And bg readings end up in the teens and 20s (and even higher though you're usually in hospital by then),

Disclaimer : we are not doctors and cannot and should not diagnose on here

So while I applaud your desire to make sure that your child isn't one of those undiagnosed diabetics who get a far too late diagnosis via A&E, none of her symptoms scream diabetes to me, and the bg level is is the normal range (though a single reading means pretty well nothing). (That doesn't mean she hasn't got diabetes, you should take her to your doctor who can do meaningful blood tests if you're worried, and if she keeps getting her current symptoms you'll want to do that to get a diagnosis of whatever it is she does have.)

As the T1 daughter of a T1 mother I've always been a little paranoid about my kids and T1. So whenever I felt suspicious I used to get out my trusty tub of urine testing strips that I'd bought from the chemist. They show sugar if your blood sugar is above 10 for any length of time, which I always figured was early enough to visit the GP for a blood test. (I'll happily accept correction on this from parents who actually have T1 kids ).

T1 can develop at any age, so no matter how many tests you do you can never say that she won't have T1 next year, just that she probably doesn't have it now.

But you know your child. If you're worried about her health, take her to the doctor. They'll do an hba1c test (measures how her sugar levels have been for the last 3 months) if they think it's relevant. They'll also be able to test for other things that could be going on, or reassure you that she's just having an off day. (Yes, 10 year olds can get periods, unfortunately, so could it be hormones???.)

Good luck.

 

[There is no Spoon]

My question is when should I test her again to rule out diabetes?

You shouldn't go see a Doctor.
If you think your daughter has a problem get her checked out by a Doctor.

The 6.9 reading is normal, perhaps on the high side of normal but not worryingly so. If your daughter had a bug making her feel ill it would be common for her blood sugar readings to be up a bit. For the majority of healthy individuals (non diabetic), normal blood sugar levels are around 7.8 or below.

I hope she feels better soon.

 

[LauraD12]

Thank you. I feel suitably reassured.

 

[Mbaker]

I would ask doctor for a HbA1c, C-peptide, Ketone and general blood panel (at 1 time to cause less distress to the child).

I cannot back up my gut feeling with glucose readings for children, but feel that a 6.9 reading 4 hours after eating, for a 10 year seems a little high to me (to be clear, not a sleepless nights worrying amount, just something to keep in mind). I believe the tests would provide clues to work off.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi and welcome

here is a link to a site discussing what is normal for children’s blood glucose.
https://www.livestrong.com/article/28521-glucose-levels-children/
I could only find sites that use American units, so to translate them into UK units, divide by 18. So an American reading of 180 is approximately 10 UK units of mmol/l

Hopefully you find that reassuring, and please remember that the timing of tests is pretty crucial. Anyone’s blood glucose rises after sugar, fruit juice, bread, rice, potato, etc. But then in a non diabetic it falls back into the normal range quickly and easily.

is your daughter showing signs of puberty/onset of menstruation?
My own experience of my periods starting involved a lot of wobbliness, faintness (including visual disturbances) and generally feeling very ‘off’ at certain times of the month.

If in doubt, you can contact your doc, but at this stage you risk being labelled as an over-protective mama if you go in brandishing meter readings. I would suggest you list her symptoms and see what doc says. Then you can hold her blood glucose query in reserve for if you need it.