Constant low blood sugar

[Bec]

Hi everyone,
My 3.5 year old daughter has constant low blood sugar, ranging from 1.9mmol/L (fasting) to 4.4mmol/L (after meal). She can show symptoms of hypoglycaemia in the morning, including a couple of scary episodes. I have taken her to the doctors 3 times but they dismiss us every time. Most frustrating! I know diabetes is related to high bgl readings but I'm worried that this may be an early sign of diabetes or some type of metabolic problem. Does anyone have experience of this? Or is it possible that she could naturally have very low blood sugar levels? TIA
EDIT: I'm not after medical advice. We have an appointment to see a consultant in the coming weeks. I am more interested whether anyone has experienced this before. Thanks!

 

[CathyB]

I can’t advise on this but as a mum and a grandmother, I really hope you get to the bottom of it so she can feel better soon, I can imagine how worried you must be. Sending you both lots of love xx

 

[Bec]

I can’t advise on this but as a mum and a grandmother, I really hope you get to the bottom of it so she can feel better soon, I can imagine how worried you must be. Sending you both lots of love xx

Thanks for your kind words CathyB

 

[Martin9]

Does she eat and drink well enough...?

 

[Bec]

Does she eat and drink well enough...?

Hi Martin9. Yes, she eats well for a 3,5yo. I’m keeping a food diary. She has three meals a day, snacks between them and now we give her some supper right before bed. It seems if she doesn’t have supper then she’ll likely show symptoms of hypoglycaemia in the morning. Xx

 

[Martin9]

It's beyond my scope of knowledge so unable to advise you, hope you get some answers soon, it must be a worrying time ..!

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

My partner has a form of reactive hypoglycaemia - that's usually associated with a rapid rise in insulin production after meals (so people who have it can't eat big carby meals because they make them hypo), but like your daughter my partner does tend to get it at other times too - eg he often wakes up with low blood sugar and gets up in what I consider to be the middle of the night in order to eat breakfast because he's too hungry to wait. Eating little and often, never eating carbs on their own (always with fat or protein to slow them down), and eating a snack last thing at night (yogurt is good for that) are the recommended things to treat it.

Having said that, my partner's blood sugar isn't constantly low like your daughter's, he just has episodes when his plummets (much like I do if I have too much insulin), but the rest of the time it's at a normal level.

What you describe isn't a usual early sign of diabetes, but it does sound as though your daughter needs to see a specialist, so I hope the consultant can help (the GP sounds completely useless). I know that the diabetes consultants I see always want me to have my cortisol levels checked in case I have Addison's disease because I have a lot of hypos (far more than I should), so I know Addison's disease causes hypos, but I'm afraid I don't know anything else about it, as my cortisol levels are always fine. So that might be one thing to find out about - but I don't want to alarm you unnecessarily, I don't know whether it's a possibility or not, only that it causes hypos.

I hope you're able to get some answers soon.