Son waking sweaty, confused, and very upset.

[MarkT1]

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone can help me. My 9yr old son was diagnosed as type1 5 weeks ago. He has been waking up during the night extremely sweaty, confused and very upset. He often comes down to the toilet but doesn't really know what he's doing. When asked about it he doesn't really know what he's done.
Not sure if this has anything to do with his diabetes as I have read that if his sugar level is high, he may be confused, each time he's done it, his levels are never high.

If someone could shed some light, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[GrantGam]

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone can help me. My 9yr old son was diagnosed as type1 5 weeks ago. He has been waking up during the night extremely sweaty, confused and very upset. He often comes down to the toilet but doesn't really know what he's doing. When asked about it he doesn't really know what he's done.

Not sure if this has anything to do with his diabetes as I have read that if his sugar level is high, he may be confused, each time he's done it, his levels are never high.

If someone could shed some light, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

That screams hypo to me... I assume you've tested his BG when you say "each time he's done it, his levels are never high.” – what were his levels?

The liver will release glucose in response to hypos. It’s quite possible that your son is dropping low, but the BG tests always seem ‘okay’ when you do them because the liver has already kicked into action. Does his BG tend to go quite high after these events; and/or does he wake quite high?

I suggest getting in touch with your diabetes care team and let them know what has been going on. I’d imagine they’ll come back with something similar and probably want to look at reducing his basal dose.

Good luck and please do let us know the outcome

 

[therower]

@MarkT1. Have to back up what @GrantGam has said. This sounds like low sugars/ hypo as opposed to high sugars.
You've obviously tested your sons sugars when this occurs, letting us know what the numbers are may help us help you.
Out of curiosity do you give your son a drink or something to eat when this happens? Or does he go back to bed?
Things change quite rapidly at times with diabetes and contacting your diabetes team will benefit you and them going forward.

Good luck.

 

[Juicyj]

Have to agree with @GrantGam - confused sweaty and needing to pee are typical symptoms of hypos, I experience the same so you need to be checking him when this happens, during the night I tend to swallow down a glucogel and wait till I am safe then back to bed, it's a struggle during the night to brush teeth as I'm generally shattered so swallowing down a glucogel than drinking juice is my personal preference.

As he's newly diagnosed he might be experiencing the honeymoon phase, however yo do need to report this activity to his team and they can look at adjusting his insulin if necessary, but please do test him when he is like this as it's important to avoid hypos as much as possible.

 

[Jaylee]

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone can help me. My 9yr old son was diagnosed as type1 5 weeks ago. He has been waking up during the night extremely sweaty, confused and very upset. He often comes down to the toilet but doesn't really know what he's doing. When asked about it he doesn't really know what he's done.
Not sure if this has anything to do with his diabetes as I have read that if his sugar level is high, he may be confused, each time he's done it, his levels are never high.

If someone could shed some light, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi MarkT1,

Another guess it's a hypo.
I remember at that age waking up like that.. Though, I always came downstairs & made a beeline for the fridge.

Would your loo be on route to the kitchen?

Have a word about it with your son's HCPs.

 

[MarkT1]

Hi, we always check his BM when this happens, once it was 14.7 then the same happened a couple of nights later and it was 5.2.

It seems like hes sleep walking when he comes downstairs, as when we speak to him he seems to snap out of his daze, then get really upset once he realises that hes not in bed anymore.

We normally give him a small drink of water when it happens as it helps to calm him down. Then he'll go back to bed. There doesn't seem to be a pattern yet. I hadn't thought about the honeymoon phase, maybe that's a factor. But I do need to speak to his nurse.

 

[Sl1990]

Probably not much help but my son was diagnosed back in Feb and he occasionally has nights like this... wakes up confused and sometimes can’t find the toilet which sometimes results in him wetting himself if it’s very late and everyone is in bed he doesn’t wake us up. We also check him and he’s not low when this happens he’s around 9-12 when tested.
Would be nice to find out what the cause is, good luck

 

[Antje77]

Could it be it is exactly what it looks like, sleepwalking? Not everything necessarily has something to do with diabetes, something gp's tend to forget as well.