My 8 yr old is driving me insane we test him and hes in the 20s so we give the correction doses advised by the nurse and a few hrs later hes low then he swings to high, we are discussing all this with his nurses every few days but he has terrible mood swings along with the bloods swinging he can be very bad tempered then silly happy its very tiring and frustrating, im trying to get him fitted with a pump and hes being considered while we wait to go on a carbs counting course and pump courses im hoping this will help but does anybody have any suggestions??
8yr old with mood swings and blood swings
- Thread starter ams162
- Start Date
Hi, How many units are you using to correct a reading in the 20's? If your son is in the honeymoon period it may only take a small amount of insulin to get his reading down to an acceptable level. I find that 1 unit will reduce my son's bg by around 8mmol so if he was in the 20's I would give him about 2 units and then be testing every hour or so to check that I hadn't over corrected. Once you've learnt to carb count it will be easier to get better control and you can work out how much insulin he needs depending on what he eats. Leggott
hi he was dianosed nearly 4 years ago so dont think its the honeymoon phase he does have latent coeliac tho and we do think its begining to show up. with regard to the correction doses the nurse has said that one unit will reduce him by 4 it was 6 but she lowered it, i just find it very frustrating getting good control it seems im working hard for nothing as his blood results hardly ever work out right not sure what else i can do really but its good to talk about it anyway so thanx
Hi, I know it is very difficult at times and can be soul destroying. What works one day doesn't necessarily work the next and that is the beast that diabetes is. Two of my kids are diabetic and I must admit I find it much harder to control my little boy who is 5. Not sure if that's down to his age or that he is just so active and unpredictable, whereas my daughter who is 7 is much easier to control and her bs doesn't seem to bounce around as much.
I would probably try giving half a unit less when you work out a correct dose as it is probably best to slightly under correct than to over. Keep a diary of what his bloods are and what activities and foods he has and this may help you work things out. Hope this helps - Leggott.
I would probably try giving half a unit less when you work out a correct dose as it is probably best to slightly under correct than to over. Keep a diary of what his bloods are and what activities and foods he has and this may help you work things out. Hope this helps - Leggott.
Thnaku leggott i have just started a diary as i have an appointment next thurs with his consultant and thought it might help them see a pattern i cant, it is soul destroying i see all these people with perfect hba1c and we have never had one even near the realms of normal (his last 4 being 9.7, 9.0, 10.9, 11.5 ) i am speaking with his nurse alot at the monent and she is lovely trying to help all she can and the consultant wants to examine him next week for the coeliac so hopefully if we can sort that things may start to improve
Hi, I'm sure you will get there. It sounds like he needs some tests so you can deal with the coeliac issue first and I'm sure that when you have learnt to carb count you will get better control. Good luck Leggott
I really feel for you trying to balance things out. It is easy for things to get worse before they get better. Khaleb had a much higher a1c for his 1st year as a diabetic and it was only when I really studied his diet and insulin that I found a way to keep him in a better pattern. I found if he was still high after meals I would increase his Novorapid but if he was rising high after meals I would increase his Levemir. I found it very important that only the one snack be given between meals (unless hypo) as continual grazing just didn't work. I have Khaleb on a fairly strict routine of when he has meals/insulin and how many carbs per meal/snack. Things still go awry but that's just diabetes.
Carb counting courses are not offered here but it is fairly easy to start doing it yourself. You'll soon form a good picture of how much insulin for food and how long the insulin takes to work and how long it lasts. You also get a picture of when the background (long acting) insulin is having little peaks of its own. Once you have better control for the majority of the time it isn't a big issue to relax the rules for special occasions or treats. Being ill or having some sort of inflammation will also cause high sugar levels so maybe by cutting out gluten you'll see better results if Coeliac is the case.
All the best getting your son's levels down a bit (without the hypo's of course).
Carb counting courses are not offered here but it is fairly easy to start doing it yourself. You'll soon form a good picture of how much insulin for food and how long the insulin takes to work and how long it lasts. You also get a picture of when the background (long acting) insulin is having little peaks of its own. Once you have better control for the majority of the time it isn't a big issue to relax the rules for special occasions or treats. Being ill or having some sort of inflammation will also cause high sugar levels so maybe by cutting out gluten you'll see better results if Coeliac is the case.
All the best getting your son's levels down a bit (without the hypo's of course).
thanku jen its nice to hear other people struggle i sometimes feel i am no good at this at all and should have good control by now after a good 3 years of trying to get it right, it does get me down abit its amazing the feelings of joy a blood test in the right area can bring out in me lol (sad i know) and then how low u can feel when u test and he reads hi or in the 20s and then i just think i cant do anything right im hoping with some good help from the nurse we will get there she may look at my diary for the week and say ahh i see where ur going wrong and i hope she does cos this has to get better soon poor dylan i feel for him with the mood swings
I know those awful high levels are serious but I have the attitude that the mistake was made about 3 hours ago and there is no use beating myself up over it. Sadly for us parents we contend with more massive changes than adults. Kids are forever growing/doing varying activities/getting fussy with food/sleeping too long .... I could go on and on. I think as the years have rolled on I've kept up with Khaleb's changes reasonably well and can predict a lot more, and, avoid a good portion of the really out of range levels. If he's done heaps of activity I can give him the extra carbs before he goes low (without giving him too much) and when he's sick or eaten extra food I can have the insulin going before he gets too high. I'm sure I've got a mental graph in my head with a line going up and down with his blood sugar.
I gather the mood swings are most likely blood sugar related and there isn't some other issue. Does Dylan feel like he's letting you down or upsetting you that his blood sugars are out of whack? Khaleb is too young to understand but whenever I do his blood sugar I look at it and say "lovely" and give him a kiss (even if it says 3 or 14). If he's low I'll come back with food and tell him he's low but I'm hoping one day he might be able to tell me that. Are you and Dylan finding things really hard at school and worrying about a hypo is making him have snacks? This is one of my fears and I often feel tempted to give Khaleb something extra before I leave him at daycare.
Anyway, I don't think you will find too many kids with perfect blood sugar all the time. Every day is a battle to get it right and try to have a somewhat normal life at the same time. I'm certainly having some night time problems at the moment. Khaleb isn't sleeping in the day all the time so the days he doesn't he needs a bigger afternoon snack and then I have to try and find a way for him to go from dinner to morning without his supper and not send him too high??? ummm - it's very hit and miss. :roll:
I gather the mood swings are most likely blood sugar related and there isn't some other issue. Does Dylan feel like he's letting you down or upsetting you that his blood sugars are out of whack? Khaleb is too young to understand but whenever I do his blood sugar I look at it and say "lovely" and give him a kiss (even if it says 3 or 14). If he's low I'll come back with food and tell him he's low but I'm hoping one day he might be able to tell me that. Are you and Dylan finding things really hard at school and worrying about a hypo is making him have snacks? This is one of my fears and I often feel tempted to give Khaleb something extra before I leave him at daycare.
Anyway, I don't think you will find too many kids with perfect blood sugar all the time. Every day is a battle to get it right and try to have a somewhat normal life at the same time. I'm certainly having some night time problems at the moment. Khaleb isn't sleeping in the day all the time so the days he doesn't he needs a bigger afternoon snack and then I have to try and find a way for him to go from dinner to morning without his supper and not send him too high??? ummm - it's very hit and miss. :roll:
i think the moodswings are from his blood sugars i feel for him because he must feel awful with all the swinging about all over the place, he doesnt know when hes low very much i praise him loads when he gets it right tho and i always tell him what his results are in the hope he will learn to associate the feelings with the high or low, he doesnt really react either way but is always pleased when i say perfect lol. it def is a daily battle and dylan is very active yesterday he spent alot of time playing outside on his bike as the sun was out he was reading hi at lunch but by tea he was hypo, im sure once we get the insulin right it will be better the nurse has suggested changing his insulin again (feels like we have tried loads) changing the long acting levimir to something else as he doesnt seem to be getting there on this one.
Hi ams162,
I'm mum to Andrew who is now 11yrs old, diagnosed 4yrs ago with diabetes and 3yrs ago with Coeliac disease. What a mixture!! Andrews hbac1 has gradually increased over the past 3yrs (result on last one being 9.0,down from 10.4)despite every effort in the book to control it, i for one think the coeliac plays a big part in cancelling out all my best efforts. As for his mood swings, which are normal when his bs is all over the place, we found when Andrew was on Lantus he was an ogre, now on Levemir and a different boy, almost normal!!
Last coeliac count was below 7, which considering on diagnosis was over 300, his gluten free diet is working, though its not easy, especially when eating out as a family.
Sending (((hugs))) we all know how frustrating it is,
Suzi x
I'm mum to Andrew who is now 11yrs old, diagnosed 4yrs ago with diabetes and 3yrs ago with Coeliac disease. What a mixture!! Andrews hbac1 has gradually increased over the past 3yrs (result on last one being 9.0,down from 10.4)despite every effort in the book to control it, i for one think the coeliac plays a big part in cancelling out all my best efforts. As for his mood swings, which are normal when his bs is all over the place, we found when Andrew was on Lantus he was an ogre, now on Levemir and a different boy, almost normal!!
Last coeliac count was below 7, which considering on diagnosis was over 300, his gluten free diet is working, though its not easy, especially when eating out as a family.
Sending (((hugs))) we all know how frustrating it is,
Suzi x
oh suzi how glad i am to find someone who has the both thought we were on our own 
, dylans coeliac is latent at the moment but we suspect it may be rearing its ugly head he is going to be examined next thurs and they will decide from there if we need to do the biopsy again to confirm until then we have to remain on a diet including gluten but its so hard when it could be that making him feel so bad i do believe its that making it hard to get good control, he is also so hungry all the time he is eating adult sized portions and still saying hes hungry. its great to hear from everyone im so glad i found this site sometimes it feels like ur the only one with these problems
, dylans coeliac is latent at the moment but we suspect it may be rearing its ugly head he is going to be examined next thurs and they will decide from there if we need to do the biopsy again to confirm until then we have to remain on a diet including gluten but its so hard when it could be that making him feel so bad i do believe its that making it hard to get good control, he is also so hungry all the time he is eating adult sized portions and still saying hes hungry. its great to hear from everyone im so glad i found this site sometimes it feels like ur the only one with these problems ams, Andrew has said after 4yrs, if he could get rid of either coeliac or diabetes, it would be the coeliac everytime, it does make them more isolated in what and where they can eat. I remember those months waiting for him to have an endoscopy (Dr went inconveniently on holiday) and we spent what seemed like forever making him ill, by making him eat the gluten, which along with all the physical side effects also showed a lot of emotional effects, so i do sympathise.
Plus its expensive having a coeliac in the family!! and my baking skills aren't always edible, even the ducks refuse to eat some of my concoctions lol But it does become a way of life and does get easier.
Once the coeliac is dealt with and you've learnt the carb counting, things will get easier and balance out a bit. Andrew being 11yrs, were kinda hitting the puberty stage and its a whole new ball game.
Take care and welcome to the very exclusive club of D&C.
Suzi x
Plus its expensive having a coeliac in the family!! and my baking skills aren't always edible, even the ducks refuse to eat some of my concoctions lol But it does become a way of life and does get easier.
Once the coeliac is dealt with and you've learnt the carb counting, things will get easier and balance out a bit. Andrew being 11yrs, were kinda hitting the puberty stage and its a whole new ball game.
Take care and welcome to the very exclusive club of D&C.
Suzi x
im sure it does limit things quite abit fortunatly i can bake lol so hope that will help things dylan loves his bread and im sure he will miss it greatly having heard that gluten free bread isnt very nice at all lol, he did have the endoscapy when he was 5 but it showed nothing but his blood test had so they said it was a waiting game then so i think another one will be on the horizon but will see what they say on thurs, thanku for ur words of support tho
Hi ams,
Glad you can bake, i'm a good baker in general, but the gluten free has me flumoxed. No two ever turn out the same, gluten binds the mixture together and science is beyond me. There is a very tasty gluten free bread on the market, delivered through the chemist free, called glutafin select fresh bread, Andrew enjoys it. Plus when i make spag bol, i also eat the gluten free pasta (one less hob to use) and i can't tell the difference, just needs rinsed loads to get rid of the extra starch.
Good luck with Thurs, let us know how Dylan gets on, and i'm here for any questions,
Take care,
Suzi x
Glad you can bake, i'm a good baker in general, but the gluten free has me flumoxed. No two ever turn out the same, gluten binds the mixture together and science is beyond me. There is a very tasty gluten free bread on the market, delivered through the chemist free, called glutafin select fresh bread, Andrew enjoys it. Plus when i make spag bol, i also eat the gluten free pasta (one less hob to use) and i can't tell the difference, just needs rinsed loads to get rid of the extra starch.
Good luck with Thurs, let us know how Dylan gets on, and i'm here for any questions,
Take care,
Suzi x
Hi suzi,
Have you tried adding xanthan gum to your flour. It makes the dough easier to manipulate and stops the bread/pastry crumbling. Costs about £2.50 and you only need a small amount. I found it in Asda when I needed to cater for a relative.
Just a thought.
Catherine.
Have you tried adding xanthan gum to your flour. It makes the dough easier to manipulate and stops the bread/pastry crumbling. Costs about £2.50 and you only need a small amount. I found it in Asda when I needed to cater for a relative.
Just a thought.
Catherine.
Yes thanks Catherine,
Have used the xanthan gum with some good results and some horrendous ones!! maybe its just my cooking skills :lol:
Suzi x
Have used the xanthan gum with some good results and some horrendous ones!! maybe its just my cooking skills :lol:
Suzi x
