• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Anger Control

J

JSG

Member
Messages
7
Hi,

In May this year, our 8 year old daughter was diagnosed as type 1. A huge shock to us, as I guess it is to everyone, however, we're doing OK with diet control, and our daughter takes her 4 injections per day + blood tests so well.

The BIG problem we have is anger control, and we wondered if anyone out there had gone through a similar experience. I guess you all know the feeling that this is only happening to you...

The problems start with a very minor issue but blow up into a huge tanrtum, which can be violent and destructive and go on uncontrolably for 3 or 4 hours.

This evening for example... after school, her levels were 4.2, which we thought was good, and she was a little hungry. We gave her a small piece of cheese and a small piece of crustry french bread just to keep her going till dinner. Within one hour, she had gone into a full blown tantrum which ended 3 hours later with her crying her eyes out. Once she stopped crying, we checked her blood and she was 17.4. Cant understand why this would jump so high with only a small piece of bread and cheese... could it be the stress throwing her sugars high?

These tantrums are really impacting our family life. We've tried talking it through, giving ground rules and telling her what will happen if it happens again etc etc... bottom line, she just seems to be completly unable to stop herself.

Appreciate any thoughts or experience you have to share

Thanks & Good Luck to you all

Jim & Sue
 
Hiya,

Sorry to hear of your daughters diagnosis, my 3 year old son has just been diagnosed type 1 a week ago.

Although I cannot offer any advice about the anger problems you are having but i can relate to them. About a month or so before our son's diagnosis he started having huge angry tantrums that blew up over nothing. He threw toys, tried tipping chairs or anything he could lay his hands on. At the time we thought it was just 3 year old tantrums but now after the diagnosis we beleive this must be related to his diabetes. Nobody has said that this could be related or not.

Having now started the insulin injections he still has mood swings and tantrums that seem to come from nowhere, as before, but they last no where near as long and at the moment seem less violent.

It is a real struggle and at times we all end up crabby with each other but it must be real hard for children to explain how they are feeling and they certainly dont understand whats happening to them.

Anyway, best wishes and lets hope somebody on the forum has some ideas.

Regards

Rob
 
Hi Rob,

Just wanted to say thanks for sharing your experiences... believe me, it does help us - we're also unsure whether this is the diabetes or just childhood stuff and it's good to get a different perspective

Thanks again, and good luck!

Jim & Sue
 
First thing to consider is,

Did your daughter throw wobblies pre-diagonises?

If she didn't then this behaviour is something linked to her diabetes, and it may not be appartant to what is behind these out bursts without difficulty...

I would look at to what her blood glucose levels are doing...

4.2 mmol/ml is on the borderline of a hypo, you did the right thing giving a top up to tie her over until tea, but what may have happened is two things.. Cheese has a high fat content, this would have slowed down the adsorbtion of the carbs from the crusty bread, due to the slow down it is possible that her blood glucose dropped below the hypo threshold before the carbs started to kick in..

So the drop kicks off her tamtram, anger produces stress so this would have increased the blood glucose, and the bread when it started to kick in increased even more, raise blood sugar levels can also make us grumpy.. So it may be a combination of several factors..

It worth noting down when she has a wobbly, against her bg' readings has this might show a pattern..

If there isn't a particular pattern to the out bursts, it could well be that she is finding it difficult to express her feeling concerning her diabetes, and the frustration is turning into our burts of anger, if you feel this is the case speak to your DNS and ask if she can speak to a counseller or such, who can help her express her feelings avoiding the anger..

But with what you are saying, my hunch would be to look at her blood glucose levels as the answer may well lay here..
 
I think along the same lines as Jopar. I think your daughter has been hypo as the bread hasn't given her enough carbs to last to dinner. The high reading has then come from her liver dumping to raise blood sugars to a better level and the adrenalin. Maybe treat the 4.2 as hypo and retest in 15 minutes after food or spread the bread with a bit of jam rather than cheese.

It would be worth doing an extra test before leaving angry behaviour go on for any length of time.

What insulin is your daughter using? Who looks after the lunch time injection at school?
 
I also think Jopur is on the right track with this. The cheese and bread would have taken a while to correct the borderline hypo which might have allowed her readings to drop even further before picking up again. If my daughter displays any behaviour which is out of character I always test straight away and nearly every time it's because she's hypo. I agree with Jen, don't let unusual behaviour go on without testing first. Also, if your daughter is active with a reading of 4.2 then the exercise will lower her bloods even further and faster. My daughter is quite active after school either doing sport or just playing actively as kids do. If your daughter is the same then she definitely needs something more fast acting to keep her from hypo.
 
Sophia/Jopar/Jen,

Thanks for taking the time to respond - we're still very new to this, and the benefit of your experience is invaluable. Some comments from our side just to broaden the picture

- When she goes down to the 4.2 type level, we are a little concerned about over correcting, particularly 45 minutes before dinner, however, during an active time, or school, we would give 3 fruit pastilles if she was this low. We were not aware of the issue with cheese though, and will certainly bear this in mind.

- She has had some temper issues over the years, but not nearly as bad, or as frequent as now. In fact, we are wondering if she has always suffered from some type of pre-diabetes which was intermittant and undetected

- She takes 6 units of Lantis and also 3.5 units of Novorapid at meal times. My wife goes to school each day to give her the lunchtime injection. Our daughter has started self injecting, but it's not a big issue for us and we're just giving it time

Main question from our side is - Do you think high or low sugars could be the cause of such severe tantrums? We dont want to assume everything is down to diabetes and potentially ignore some other factor

We're very strong as a family, and we will continue to work with her, support her 110%.... whatever it takes. We just want to help her improve her quality of life as this is really upsetting for her.

Your input is greatly appreciated

Thanks again & good luck to you all

Jim & Sue
 
It is fantastic that you are offering such great support in the face of what has the ability to be a frustrating condition.

As to your question about being high or low causing tantrums I would probably think that swinging from one to the other would be the most upsetting. Being low is a more immediate problem and would need treating asap and being high tends to cause dehydration and headaches short term and bigger problems long term. Different people react differently to both. Hypos that come on slowly in Khaleb tend not to show many symptoms but rapid drops in blood glucose has him turning white, yawning, crying, sweating and trembling.

My way of solving the problem of treating or being close to a hypo before a meal is usually to give a decent snack (15gm carb) but to add those carbs to the insulin I give with the meal - just slightly adjusted so I don't end up back in hypo territory. Khaleb's teacher at his Early Learning Centre has gone overboard treating a hypo but because I know what they gave him I just give him extra insulin to cover it with his next meal. I don't have food refusal problems with Khaleb and he is not over/under weight so it must all balance out at the end of the day. I wouldn't give fast acting insulin injections any closer than about 3 hours apart. Stacking insulin just tends to cause hypos.

Eventually diabetes can be made to work with your life rather than the other way around.
 
It is possible for diabetes to cause tamdrums with both high and low sugar levels..

It interesting that you say this happened before diabetes was dignoised..

My son suffered from temper tamdrums, would turn from quiet to an angered filled, sobbing demond... It took time to sort out why's, as my HCP that I approached, considered them to nothing more than tamdrums.. so I was left to fathom out what lay behind them..

Using a food diary, I managed to solve the riddle and track down the whole cause of his outburts were two food colouring, Blue and Yellow when he ate or drank anything containing these he would go off on one, within several hours and the tamdrum would last several hours before he started to calm down..

Avoiding these proved to be the anwer, as after this yes he would have moments of anger as we all do, but the outburts where nowhere the the violent or stressing that they had been..

So perhaps a look here might help
 
Hi

Just a thought about the high bg reading after you gave yr daughter something to eat for the low, is that if she had her lunchtime insulin there was probably a gap of about 4hrs before you found out she was going a bit low. The bolus insulin (3.5u ?) was most likely starting to be on its last legs when you tested, so by giving yr daughter the crusty piece of bread (about 20g carb???) you gave her a bit too much carb and that's why she went so high. You need to look at the time a tiny bit more and remember when the last bolus was given and how much carb was eaten and then look to see if the hypo feeling starts to come on approx 2.5hrs after the bolus or later. You'll then be able to judge roughly how much carb to use. :wink:
 
Hi,

Just want to thank you all for the responses and terrific advice... You given us some things to think about, and we feel like we're learning every day!

Thanks again, and good luck to you all!

Jim & Sue
 
Back
Top