Hypoglycaemia signs and child testing

Dougie08 said:

Am currently been treated for type 2 diabetes with 1500mg of slow release metformin... my boy who is 6 years old is showing signs of hypoglycaemia at what age do you think he should be tested ? Cheers Paul

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Hi Paul, sorry to hear of your son with a possible medical problem. Make an appointment with your GP, as with children, it is always best to get them seen asap. Make sure you go in with the symptoms and any other info, as a lot of Gp's often think children have some sort of virus. Do you have a meter so that you could test your son's BS (if he is okay with it being done) because we don't want to put children under any stress or inflict pain on them.
Good luck and please could you let us know how you get on ?

What signs of hypoglycaemia is your son showing? Have you tested his blood sugar when he is having these symptoms to see if he has low blood sugar? If he sees you testing your blood sugar he might be keen to have a go on it himself.

If his blood sugar is normal then you might want to be seen by the GP to see what else might be causing the symptoms. If his blood sugar is <3.5 you should get seen by the GP to see what is causing low blood sugar.

I'm not sure what tests to look into that would be excluding. Low blood sugar is not a sign of undiagnosed diabetes as diabetes is a condition of high blood sugar. It might just be growth spurts meaning your son needs to eat more frequently. But if you are concerned, keep records of what your son is eating and when, what is he doing and when he gets these symptoms and go to have a chat with your GP to get it checked out.

@Robinredbreast has posted a useful link. Hypoglycaemia in childhood is a recognised non-diabetic condition. If it's causing you concern, do speak to your GP.

Edited to add that I'm not sure what you mean about the age he should be tested at. You could test his blood sugar now yourself if you're able/happy to do so. If you mean 'tested for diabetes', then bear in mind that the condition mentioned above is not a diabetic one. As @catapillar says, diabetes is a condition of high blood sugar not low.