Type 1 Diabetes: Children Living With the Disease - Topic Overview
Even when you
are careful and do all the right things, your child can have problems with low
or high blood sugar. Teach your child to look for signs of low and high blood
sugar and to know what to do if this happens.
- If your child has low blood sugar, he or
she may sweat a lot and feel weak, shaky, or hungry. But your child's symptoms
may be different. Low blood sugar happens quickly. A person can get low blood
sugar within minutes after exercise or after taking insulin without eating
- If your child has high blood sugar, he
or she may be very thirsty or hungry, have to urinate more often than usual, or
have blurry vision. High blood sugar usually develops slowly over hours or
Young children can't tell if they have low blood sugar as
well as adults can. Also, after your child has had diabetes for a long time, he
or she may not notice low blood sugar symptoms anymore. This raises the chance
that your child could have low blood sugar emergencies. If you are worried
about your child's blood sugar, do a
home blood sugar test. Don't rely on symptoms alone.
Both low and high blood sugar can cause problems and need to be
treated. Your doctor will suggest how often your child's blood sugar should be
See your child's doctor at least every 3 to 6 months to check how well
the treatment is working. During these visits, the doctor will do some tests to
see if your child's blood sugar is under control. Based on these results, the
doctor may change your child's treatment plan.
When your child is
10 years old or starts puberty, he or she will start having exams and tests to
look for any problems from diabetes.
Your child's insulin dose and possibly the types of insulin may change
over time. The way your child takes insulin (with shots or an
insulin pump) also may change. This is especially true
during the teen years when your child grows and changes a lot.
What and how much food your child needs will also change over the years.
But it will always be important to eat about the same amount of carbohydrate at
each meal. Carbohydrate is the nutrient that most affects blood sugar.