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?

[alpop]

The past two days I've really noticed how much water (with a tiny bit dilution juice) he is drinking. He's asking me a lot for more. He will down it then ask for another one

His mouth smells like an acidic smell like battery acid. I have no better way of explaining it. It's smelt like that since yesterday. His older sisters have noticed it too and said he smells weird

He's well otherwise. He was running a lot today and has been at his nursery.

He's maybe eating slightly more. But he's completely well other wise

Diabetes runs in my family. My brother is type 1 and was really unwell at 5 years old. My mum didn't notice anything until he was passing out then admitted to hospital.

Does anyone have any ideas??

@alpop I'm sorry for all the harsh posts you've received.
I hope your son is okay.

Please don't worry about being overcautious....it doesn't sound like you are, but even if that were the case it's better to waste someone's time than risk something serious happening to your ds.

Wishing your son well @alpop

My first thoughts were diabetes.

Hope he's OK OP- how did it go.

Be interesting to see what op says.

I think he could just have the onset of a cold/virus
My son's breath smells like that when he gets ill.

Hope your LO is ok now, OP.

Maybe ,but with the unquenchable thirst and a history of type 1 diabetes in the family it's best to take it seriously ,DKA is life threatening

.

@Badgerandfox227 he had the finger prick test and it came back as 5.4 which is normal

So we were given a cup for a urine sample and if that's clear then he has a full blood test

There was no throat infection etc

He still has the strong smell in his mouth and is still drinking loads

The dr said she isn't worried but to do all the tests anyway.

Great news OP, thanks for coming back. Hopefully he feels better soon. You must have been so worried.

That's brilliant fingers crossed everything is OK

Not sure why you are posting this. You clearly know it's a sign of diabetes. Children can fall into comas with undiagnosed diabetes. Call 111, don't ask mumsnet

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy the dr didn't say anything about a cold etc.

Is the smell really strong on your child? I can smell him from the other side of the couch. He's not showing any signs of a cold. The smell doesn't go away with him drinking lots of water or brushing his teeth or eating. My oldest gave him a mint to try to stop the smell and it didn't work

My oldest had a strange smell when she had a cold as a toddler but it's not the same smell as that, that was a really recognisable cold smell I can't describe it but you could tell it was a cold/flu smell.

Not sure why you're posting this. You can clearly see that the OP made a doctor's appointment hours ago and that the child is fine.

A sinus infection can also cause a strong smell.

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

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.

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.

@ManhattanPopcorn could he have a sinus infection with no symptoms? He's not unwell in any other way than drinking loads and the smell in his mouth.

I'm scared it's at the early point, with my brother he took about 2 months of being thirsty and drinking a lot before he became really unwell. Could the blood sugar only change at that point? He was fine other than being really thirsty. Maybe he's still at the point of that, my sister is a nurse and said 5.4 is fine but on the lower end.

@Bimblesalong he hasn't lost any weight and he isn't grouchy. The only thing is him being more tired than usual but with his nursery he can get like that. He is needing an hour or so more sleep than usual

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.

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?

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

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).

@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.