A couple of days ago there was a post regarding sweet smelling breath and urination. It got me to thinking about my 8 year old who still wets the bed and has bad/sweet? smelling breath. I have a glucose monitor at home, but he won't let me use it on him. I also have some KETO sticks from my testing for ketosis days. They are recent; I just no longer feel the need to use them. Does anyone know what a result on these would be that would be alarming for Type 1 Diabetes? Color or no color? I thought that I would check him later today after a carby meal (no gluten).
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locked by Bread-Eating Beelzebub Jan 11 2011 at 2:28 |
closed as off topic by Bread-Eating Beelzebub Jan 11 2011 at 2:29 |
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A urine ketostix test is not an accurate test for diabetes, because most diabetics are not in ketosis or ketoacidosis (DKA) at any given time. If it's positive, however, it would indicate the need for further testing. A urine glucose test is somewhat more accurate, and will show positive most of the time if the blood sugar is over 200. Of course, neither ketostix (for ketones) nor diastix (for sugar) of the urine are an accurate substitue for a blood glucose test. Regarding bedwetting, an 8 year old who wets the bed is on the unlucky side of the bell curve, but is likely to be normal. Most bedwetting in children is not caused by blood sugar problems. Often the cause is a relatively low level of antidiuretic hormone (ADH). The most effective treatment for bedwetting in children is a bedwetting alarm such as Wet-Stop or Potty-Pager. |
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Who is the decision maker here? You or your child? If you suspect diabetes, you need to test the kid's blood sugar upon waking up first. Normal is around 95-100. Then eat a normal breakfast and retest for blood sugar at the 1 hour mark. If it is up over 130 or so then this is telling you that the pancreas is not putting out enough insulin to control blood sugar. Dr Davis wants the after eating BG to be the same or close to the fasting BG reading. http://bit.ly/gLTnh3 Modification of the diet can control diabetes. |
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I wouldn't worry if I were you, as Type 1 diabetes would be tough to miss. It's believed that the autoimmune disease actually progresses slowly and asymptomatically for a period of months or even years until the a sufficient quantity of beta cells are destroyed to produce symptoms of hyperglycemia -- extreme thirst, frequent urination, fatigue, weight loss, and hunger in some cases. In my case, I noticed I was unusually thirsty and rather fatigued, plus I noticed I was waking up at night to urinate. Prior to this I'd never had any health problems so I basically ignored it. A week had passed and I noticed that I had mysteriously lost 10 lbs, which was not welcomed because I was already very slender. The following week I was sleeping around the clock, waking up every 45 minutes to urinate and get something to drink. I stepped on the scale and saw that I had dropped another 20 lbs, just in that one week. When I finally visited the doctor I was so dehydrated that I wasn't able to speak, as my tongue was stuck to the bottom of my mouth. He prescribed me pills thinking that I was a Type 2 diabetic, which resulted in DKA the following day (he also didn't even bother to give me an IV for the dehydration. What an Asshole.). |
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Type 1 Diabetes is characterized (almost always) by extreme thirst, extreme hunger and LOSS OF WEIGHT. I am not trying to be alarmist, but if he has Type 1 diabetes, he will die if not treated. I would suggest that you perform the fingerstick immediately (he "won't let you" indeed) just to get a general idea of what is blood sugar is running, and THEN take him to the doctor, whether he "lets" you or not. |
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My husband was diagnosed with type 1 when he was 9. His only symptoms were unusually frequent thirst and urination. Those seem to be the most common symptoms for little ones. |
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A friend of mine ( a nurse no less ) suspected that her 8 year old daughter had type 1 for quite a few months without anything to go on - she pushed her GP to test her Blood Glucose and that night she was in intensive care - BSL of 15. In the end she had no real symptoms - it was a hunch - so dont waste time here - just go get him tested - if you are wrong - GREAT but really .......... |
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Depends on what type of diabetes you are looking for. If type one, then eventually the child would have so few functiong beta cells that insulin levels would drop very low and he would lose weight and go into ketosis. Only then would ketosticks be of much use. But most people these days have type II diabetes which means that insulin is present but the body is not properly sensitive to it. The only way to reliably test for this is blood testing. One thing you could do is wait for the child to get a little cut or scrape and some blood comes out because of that, and then run and get your glucometer and use the blood drops to do the test. Of course, you will have to interpret the results according to what food was recently eaten and when, but overall, it should give you a rough idea if a big problem is present or not. Usually, kids fall down and scrape their knee often enough that you shouldn't have to wait too long for some blood to spill by accident. |
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