low blood sugar

[Carbonel]

Anyone else with a dc prone to low blood sugar incidents? Ds has been like this for a while but we had him checked out and thr eis no underlying reason so we manage his diet to make sure he east regularly - generally he would need a meal every 4 hours max with a sanck (fruit / biscuit) in the middle.

If his blood sugar drops he gets really uncooperative and stroppy at the slightest thing. This last couple of weeks have been so difficult - he basically needs to eat a fairly large snack at least every 2 hours at the moment, especially if he is 'exercising' (and what 5 yr old boy is not running around all the time). We are just about keeping up with things at home but it is hard to keep track of sometimes.

Would be nice to know if anyone else has any experience / strategies to deal with this - he is struggling at school despite them being aware of his need to eat because he just needs so much and so often at the moment and they cannot always pick up on it quickly enough( I am struggling so not surprising they do)

Have you tried giving more protein/fat with his carbs snacks and meals, as this gives more sustained energy and fat gives lots of calories.
If he has reactive hypos (in response to high GI carbohydrates releases too much insulin) then this would be worth trying.

He may need to be checked for hyperthyroidism which can give these typs of problems.

My daughter has a slight heart problem and if she has an episode it leaves her with low blood sugars, so I kind of know what you mean about the mood changes. She goes quite floppy and irritable. We give her fruit and then toast with peanut butter to sustain her.

Good luck and keep us updated x

Carbonel, my 6 year old DD has low blood sugar moments. There is no point in going into the details of the 'meltdowns' except to say they are ugly. When her body is all 'balanced' - ie, she's been feed, she's hydrated, she's slept well - then she's a perfectly behaved child. But if the balance goes off, and her sugar dips, she turns into a monster until I can fetch her a snack and a drink.

I took her to the doctors who were dismissive. They said low blood sugar is within the realms of normal. When we've managed to take her sugar levels on one of these episodes its been between below 4.

I have to say, though, that I would not be surprised at all if something physical was ever found wrong with her. She suffers serious insomnia and also complains daily her body aches.

Diabetes runs in DH's family and I read somewhere that suffering low blood sugar can be an indication that a person is more likely to develop diabetes type II when older. I don't know how true that is, but out of curiousity ask if diabetes is in your family?

As far as managing it goes, we do probably the same as you and make sure meal times and snack times are as regular as possible. She doesn't have the best diet in the world, though. Refuses vegetables and absolutely craves sugary things which could be part of the problem.

I would say that she has probably had this since she was about 3.5 years and it was at its worst at about 5 years. She is now 6.5 years and it is a lot better. The low sugar meltdowns are less frequent.

I don't normally hear of other people with similar problems so its actually a comfort to read your post, although I'm sorry I've not really given you any advice.