My 4 year old has been drinking a lot of water and his mouth smells like acid like a battery acid what could this be?

Could the doctor smell it too?

It's sounds like the symptoms of diabetes but if his blood reading was 5.4 that's normal. I would keep an eye on him.

My sons signs were drinking a lot, wetting the bed/had an accident in the day actually which is why I took him to go as usually was dry, looking back I can now see he had lost a lot of weight. Luckily we only required an overnight stay and were back out the next day.

Thank you so much, this is incredibly helpful. No diabetes in our family either - but we do have Crohn's. So will keep a close eye on how my little one gets on. Really pleased you got to the bottom of what was happening with your little boy.

5.4 isn’t the lower end. If you’re worried because of the family history, I’d just get a reliable blood glucose meter and a pot of Ketostix and do occasional tests on him.

The smell could be a mouth smell. Dry mouth can cause a smell and can account for excess drinking. You could also get him a dental check just in case there’s decay forming or some gum problem (I had an abscess at that age due to a weird tooth).

Some doctors are mistaken and think that when symptoms show in children they will always test positive and there is no pre-diabetes, but this isn't true. People can still produce insulin for a long time before they have full blown type 1, there is a huge research project ongoing that has proven it bit GP's don't all know. So it is possible he will have diabetes but tested fine at the GP. The best time to test is an hour or 2 after a carb heavy meal. You know the signs of ketoacidosis so don't worry. If he goes rapidly downhill take him to A&E. Blood glucose monitors and glucose urine sticks are cheap to buy if you want peace of mind to monitor him at home. One thing I will mention though, is steroids can raise blood pressure. My son had intermittent signs of diabetes and I worried about it a lot, until I found out that his asthma steroids can cause mild glucose intolerance. I had to read a lot of studies, doctors didn't have a clue.

I wouldn't say I'd be able to smell it from the other side of the sofa, no. But it's like a bogey smell. I'm wondering if it is a sinus thing as a pp suggests because that would explain why teeth brushing etc doesn't help

Please read the thread now.

He hasn't pushed something up his nose has he?

i have type one diabetes: go to a and e now. He sounds like he has it, DKA google it.
doesn’t matter about weight loss I didn’t have any. Please go now

If it's not diabetes, I wonder about acid reflux/GERD with the drinking being to get rid of the taste.

Tonsil stones are also very smelly.

5.4 is normal. Diagnosis is usually accompanied by really high blood sugar. But I think in the early stages of onset it can go up and down so could get some normal readings.

Blood sugar is usually between 4-7. Up to 10 still normal. Any reading over 10 would be a flag for me.

You can buy finger prick stuff. Just need to make sure you get the right strips for the reader. Then you can monitor bloods a bit yourself at home if you’re still worried.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but has he been eating anything with a lot of garlic? When my 3yr old has anything quite garlicky he gets the most horrendous breath for a few days afterwards. It's not a garlic smell, it's hard to describe but it smells like it could strip paint and makes my eyes water when he cuddles me. No amount of tooth brushing and mints seem to get rid of it, it just disappears after a couple of days. My older son had it too when he was around that age, he seems to have grown out of it now. It's really strange

Your sister is a nurse and you turn to the net

Glad you have taken him to the GP

If any other concerns, consult your sister / Doctor / A&E
Noone here can tell you anything for certain

It wouldn’t explain the thirst but is there any chance he’s stuck something up his nose? I only ask because we had this with my son (he has asd) We had months of a terrible smell coming from his breath we thought. We were back and forward to the doctors couple of lots of antibiotics incase there was an infection. The smell just kept getting worse. It was stinking a full room out. Then eventually after months he started having a little bit of blood round his nose which then prompted the hospital to have a look. There was a bit of sponge up there the smell was vile!

@Stirrednshaken aged 6 he had a few trips to the dr - awful stomach pains, losing weight and classes as “failure to thrive”. He was tested under a consultant for a few things - we were beside ourselves. A few months after he turned 7 (& with further gp trips during that time and nad), we noticed he was incredibly thin, whiny, tired and within a week he developed a huge thirst, pear drops smell and then had consecutive nights of wetting the bed having been dry since very early. Gp sent us straight to hospital and phoned the house later that day to ensure we had gone and to progress check.

there is a honeymoon phase for many people developing diabetes and many of us in our support group at the time seem to have had children whose glucose readings appeared normal, even though the child was in slow decline. The pancreas was flickering like a faulty light.

I guess the message is, even though things might seem clear, don’t necessarily rule it out and continue to monitor.

we had no diabetes in our family although dh is coeliac, which I then found out is a highly concurrent risk factor with t1.

A finger prick of 5.4 is absolutely normal. A finger prick above 11.1 is indicative of diabetes and in my experience GPs are very cautious. DD2 was sent to hospital with a finger prick of 8 (she wasn't diabetic).

Sorry I haven’t read the full thread only the OPs replies.

Could you do a free trial for a continuous glucose monitor? Link it up to your phone and then you’ll know exactly what’s going on with his blood sugar

Does it depend when he’s eaten? If you are worried maybe ask if he needs to do fasting blood sugars or post eating etc?

Can I ask what symptoms you had? We've just been to the doctors today over being very tired (sleeping three hours a night more than usual for several weeks) but urine dip was clear for glucose so I assumed that ruled out diabetes. He's very tired and grumpy a lot of the time.

Oh this is so interesting. My now 6 year old gets a very strong smell in the past. It can be around for a couple of months then go for a few weeks, then come back. It seems to come from his nose rather than mouth but it’s really rancid. I took him to the docs for it post covid so telephone appointment first and I really struggled to describe the smell… eventually the doc agreed to see him in person and as soon as we walked in the room she said ‘oh yes I see what you mean now’! We got a referral but by the time it came round it had gone. I’m fairly sure it’s a viral thing for us. Perhaps sinus as above has said.

keep an eye on the thirst tho - sore throats can make kids drink more but I’m sure you know what to look out for in terms of diabetes. Glad you got that ruled out for now at least.

thanks for updating op. Has he lost weight? Is he grouchy?
fwiw we were back and to the gp for a few months with symptoms, although we didn’t get to the incredibly thirsty and bedwetting stage until just before diagnosis.

Really pleased to hear that, and that they’re still running all the tests as sounds so out of normal.

Sorry you’ve had a hard time here, I think it’s hard sometimes to know if you’re on the right track with your think, and I can see why you asked on here. It’s a shame some of the responses were a bit harsh xx