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Teenage drinking and diabetes

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C

Camcallie

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hi there
I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, apologies if not.
Last weekend my son went out drinking at a party, he is 16 and a type 1. He consumed we think around 12-15 units, which yes was very irresponsible of him, ended up completely plastered! By the time his friends got him home he was vomiting, hypo and drowsy. He then went to bed a was almost unresponsive, he had no idea we were pricking his finger to test his BM. It was a terrifying night for us as I had no guidance what so ever on how to handle this situation. I called G-Docs as he is 16 now and part of transitions services, no longer under childrens services. G-Docs were hopeless, told us to give him milk and chocolate to get his BM above 4 then monitor him every hour. Thankfully my own common sense knew not to do that, I went with lucozade but as he was still vomiting it was extremely difficult to get him to drink. They also informed me to stop all insulin even his background which we did. I had to end up calling the childrens ward in the morning for advice and they informed me this was wrong by now he had no LEVIMIR for over 36 hours! He wasn't very well until the Sunday. I just wondered if any other parents or type 1's have been in this position? I feel the information in my area is not great for dealing with teen drinking, they won't bring it up until the person is 18 but realistically teenagers will go out and drink, parents should have correct information on what to do and information on who to call out of hours for specific advice on insulin ect. I am thinking about campaigning for this in my area. I feel there isn't a great deal of advice for the type 1 16-18 year old age group?
 
Hi Camcallie, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about the difficult time you have all had, it must have been very distressing :( There do seem to be problems in some areas when a young person is transitioning to adult services, which is a real shame as this is a time when the young person is beginning to try new things, and also is often being left the responsibilities of managing their diabetes for the first time. Drinking is indeed a fact of life amongst the young, and certainly before the 'official' legal age, so better education at a younger age is essential.

The main problem with alcohol is that, although it may initially raise blood sugar levels, they will often drop low later as the liver processes the alcohol and stops releasing glucose. For this reason, people are advised to test regularly, and eat carby snacks with their drink. How low/high did his levels go?
 
Hi Northerner, thank you for the welcome
His levels were all over the place during the night, down at 2.9 then as high as 13, then dropping again. It was like that really until the Sunday. At one point I had missed an alarm at 3am and woke at 4 am to find he had managed to get to the bathroom but had collapsed/ fallen asleep behind the door and we couldn't open it. His Bm was 8.7 at 2am then 3 at 4am. It really was terrifying, I was scared to sleep!
On hind sight I'm not sure if he would have been better being monitored in hospital. I am really angry about the lack of help I had that night, there definitely is a need for even a leaflet to be given to parents at the first transitions clinic appt with info about alcohol. Regardless of the teenagers age!
 
That's quite a roller-coaster :( I'm not really in a position to comment much as I was 49 when I was diagnosed, so drinking wasn't really that new to me. Hopefully, you will get a bit of feedback from other parents about the kind of care and advice they have received. I know you are not alone in your ordeal, as we have had similar stories here in the past.

How does he feel now, and did he say sorry - and thank you for taking care of him!
 
He hasn't really said very much about it! He did mention he felt very unwell and weak all day Saturday and Sunday, it took him a while to recover.
I was hoping he had given himself enough if a fright he won't don it again but I'm not sure. He keeps saying to me and my husband you both did it when you were young! Yes we did but we arnt diabetic!!

I hope I do get some feedback , it would be good to know if others are dealing with this so I can bring it up at my local health board and clinic meetings?

Thanks 🙂
 
Hi I'm sorry that you and your son have gone through this. It must have been very scary. Although it is not easy for you I can see your son's perspective. I started going out drinking at 16 ( I've been diabetic for 43 years) and in those days MDI hadn't even been invented. My first ever party ended up with my friends driving me to hospital after trying to force feed me with sugar as I had collapsed from a hypo after a few cans of lager. I didn't ever collapse again but have had many,many drunken nights out over the years and wouldn't change that for anything. It's part of ensuring that diabetes is only part of your life rather than letting it rule your life and trying to live as much as possible like others. My funniest drinking session was fairly recently when I gate crashed a party by Benny and Bjorn of Abba and was dancing very, very close to Benny for about 30 minutes - I don't remember getting back to the hotel but I survived and had great fun
 
Hi Camcallie- have sent you an email- hopefully!
 
Hi, Do you have diabetes nurses who would talk you about this issue, it is difficult as he is only 16, but it is very normal to start drinking at that age and the hospital should be able to give you advice. I was diagnosed when I was 16 and started drinking at 18 when I was at uni. I used to drink quite a lot most nights and had no advice either. I found that it was best to drink something that had some carbs - like beer, wine or something with fruit juice because the alcohol lowered my blood sugars quickly. Shots of spirits are best avoided but that is hard with peer pressure to down shots quickly - if this is an issue get a glass of fruit juice to drink after! Also, even if blood sugars are high, always eat something before bed - chips, kebab or whatever he can find on the way home - because the alcohol had a blood sugar lowering effect well into the night and the next day and it is safer to be a bit high once in a while than risk severe hypos. If in doubt, phone for an ambulance if he passes out and have low blood sugar!
 
Hi Camcallie. Kids whoed ev em ! Sorry to hear your tale, Everyones a little different but if I am going out I make sure I had tea before & testing when you come back after a night out is something I don't do. Bgs are all over the place. I know you cant start dictating to kids who arnt kids but he will have to learn. Really good luck.
 
Hi Camcallie
My son (also 16) had too much to drink at a party recently - beer and margaritas (yuk). He felt pretty awful and had to test a lot, had swinging sugars too. But he wasn't as poorly as your son, no vomiting, so that must have been very scary. Sounds like the advice you got on the phone was completely hopeless 😡 Generally as others have said, you need to have something carby if you're drinking, eg. bag of crisps in between drinks but if you start being sick it's a whole new ball game. I suppose the upside of this is that you were there to take care of him, and he probably felt so awful that it's put him off for at least a while.
I really recommend a book called 'Joe's Rough Guide to Diabetes' which was written by a young man who felt there wasn't enough information for teens with T1 about drinking, drugs, sex and so on. It is very useful with clear advice about how to manage situations that young people are going to encounter.
http://www.joes-diabetes.com/diabetes-shop.html
The writing style is good, not patronising, takes the view that drug taking and heavy drinking may not be a great idea but if you're going to do it, you may as well stay as safe as you can.
It's a minefield isn't it!
Bye for now
Catherine
 
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