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Worried about daughter

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WingedBeastie

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Hello

I hope it's ok, I signed up to ask for advice about my 8 year old daughter. Not sure if I'm worrying unnecessarily as I can be over-anxious :)

I've discovered that she has been waking in the night and eating sweets, raisins and even sugar! I found wrappings hidden under her bed and after a while she confessed. She's been waking up ravenously hungry and with a stomach pain in the early hours and sneaking downstairs to eat.

My mother and my sister in law are both T1 diabetic and it raised alarms.

My girl hasn't lost weight and doesn't seem excessively hungry in the day. She has been drinking a bit more over the past few months. She does seem unfit / tires easily but this has been going on a longer while.

There are other possible signs but again these have been happening a longer time and I think diabetes always comes on suddenly in children.

Would this warrant a GP visit or should I just keep an eye and wait?

Thankyou
 
Hello @WingedBeastie It's natural to wonder if it could be type 1, but really i'd only start to get worried if my child was drinking and peeing excessively, was really grumpy/tired, had smelly breath and of course losing weight, the onset is quite sudden in children and you would know the signs.

Silly question but is she eating enough in the evening to tide her over ? I try to enforce no distractions at meal times so my child can eat and understand when she is full without being distracted by the tv, or smart device etc and then just leaving food she isn't interested in. I also remember getting the munchies as a kid and going downstairs to raid the cupboard, I wasn't type 1 then.

Of course any suspicions also need to be raised with your GP too :)
 
Thankyou for replying Juicyj. I reckon she's eating plenty. She's not a skinny child and always eats all her food... infact she doesn't seem to have an off switch. It's just this stealing food in the night business is so out of character. I'll just keep an eye out for anything more obvious or worrying.
 
8 years old is around the time of another growth spurt. There is a time then, and again in mid adolescence, where their stomachs cant get enough nourishment in at one time, and they need more meals, every 4 hours. Their stomachs are not big enough to contain the nourishment they need. This sounds like it might be one of those times. Does she have a good supper before bedtime as well as her tea earlier? that can help.

Mind you, as she is targeting sweet stuff, it could be that something is worrying her or has changed in her life.
 
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