3 year old excessive thirst

[ShallWeGoToTheFirepit]

Hi everyone.

My 3 year old DD has always been a big drinker. She guzzled her bottles and milk as a baby and always drank lots of water and milk.

I never thought anything of it until preschool mentioned it to me recently.

Since then (on Friday) I have kept a tally of how many drinks she has. She mostly drinks water or milk, with the occasional squash or diluted fresh juice.

She has had 14 drinks today in total, she has a large munchkin cup if you know the one I mean, so it's quite a big cup rather than a small beaker.

When she does drink each drink, she will more often or not guzzle them down. She does pee very often and her pee is clear. I honestly thought it was just good hydration!

Is this normal? Or anything to worry about? No other symptoms of anything, otherwise a very strapping healthy preschooler. She is slightly on the smaller side, but I am petite and she's plotting on her charts correctly. I'm now worried about over hydration.

Thank you!

No, it doesn't.
You have to have a blood test.

I see @MistyFrequencies has mentioned excessive drinking as a sensory seeking behaviour. I’ve definitely heard about some autistic children who do this. Something about the act of chugging water fulfils some kind of sensory need.

Not saying your child is autistic, but once you’ve exhausted all of the more scary medical reasons for excessive thirst, you might conclude that it’s a habit or quirk borne out of a sensory issue.

Honestly @ShallWeGoToTheFirepit I would get a second opinion because most type 1 diabetes cannot be diagnosed purely with a urine dip.

Keystones are only present if her sugars are high and if she is drinking to the point her urine is clear then she is probably diluting the sugar in her urine to a negligible level.

Did you mention the history to the GP?

I am hyper sensitive to this as my stepson died earlier this year. He was a tenn and played Russian roulette with his meds but he died as a result of his Diabetes. I am not trying to scare you or suggest your dd is about to die but you seem quite niave about the symptoms so am making you aware that undiagnosed it can kill so I would be asking for the blood test ASAP because 4l of water in a 3 year old is dangerous levels!

Thank you, I'm so sorry about your step son that's absolutely tragic.

I'm totally naive as I know nothing about this. She is being seen at the hospital on Friday under the paeds team so I will push for more testing to be done then.

Her urine was honestly like tap water which surprised me a little bit, but you're right, 4 litres is a huge amount. I know that much.

I will make sure to ask the paeds team to look into / test her on Friday.

That paeds appointment is very well timed! Defo mention about the excessive drinking and weeing. They will be better able to request specialist tests as well.
Did you have any bloods done as part of the referral?

Is she at home with you tomorrow or Thursday by any chance? And does she use nappies/potty/toilet? If toilet trained then it could be helpful to do 24h of measuring how much she drinks alongside how much she wees by getting her to use a potty even if normally uses toilet and then measuring. You can find fluid input/output charts online.

I knew someone who complained about how much he wee'd in the night but when he did a fluid diary he was drinking a cup of water every toilet trip so something like 1L overnight... and he was surprised he then kept needing to get up to wee haha.

Hello, thank you for your reply, really helpful suggestion!

She uses the toilet but I will ask her to use the potty. She's off with me half day tomorrow and all of Thursday as I'm on annual leave so I'll definitely do the wee output measurement.

Today she had about 3.5 litres of water and a cup of milk before bed.

No bloods done as part of the referral. I will definitely ask tomorrow though for sure.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

@shallwegotothefirepit when you see paeds Friday you need to push for a blood ketone test. It's very quick but they take the blood from the heel a bit like a glucose test but this is far more accurate than a urine dip which won't show much esp with her drinking so much.
They also need to do proper blood glucose tests not just the strips as they can see what her average levels are not just at a certain time like the strips show.
I would also as for a Venus blood gas blood test as this will check her electrolytes and with drinking so much they can be completely out of whack along with some other tests. The GP should have also given you a home blood glucose kit to borrow to check her sugar levels throughout the day to see if there's a pattern. I would ask paeds for one on Friday to help build a picture of what's going on.
They did this for my daughter who was sent to a&e with excessive thirst, low blood sugar, lethargic, being sick etc.
We're still waiting on Endocrinologist for her as they've said its not diabetes.
I hope you can get some answers for her.

I think she should have some blood tests to check her electrolyte levels as seizures can be triggered by electrolyte imbalances. Low sodium can be caused by drinking too much water. Definitely speak to the paediatricians about it on Friday.

I would really reccomend getting a blood test for diabetes inspidus. It doesn't show up in urine tests as has nothing to do with sugar levels. My husband developed it as a child due to a brain tumour in his piturity but there's a number of reasons it can develop. it can be dangerous if left untreated, the upside is it's easily treatable with a tablet every 8 hours. If she's been having seizures i definately think an MRI is in order.

This excess drinking was the first symptom my husband showed, followed by a squint.

BTW it's now 20 years later and he's fit and healthy bar a few tablets a day. We are even expecting our second child :)

This is really helpful, thank you.

Her absent episodes have happened 4 times in total. She will be mid conversation and completely stop talking and stare into space. On 2 of those occasions her eyes went crossed. She didn't collapse or lose consciousness at all, but I tried blowing in her face and got no reaction out of her. They lasted about 20-30 seconds.

I was diagnosed with petit mal as a child, and then as an adult my seizures were due to a heart condition, it was a neurological response type of thing, so they're not epileptic.

But that's interesting to read and I'm so glad your husband is okay. I had no idea diabetes insipidus was even a thing and there seems to be strong symptoms suggesting this with DD.

I'll ask for the blood sugar testing strips, and push for that at least, as well as a blood test.

If I didn't post here I would've just gone along to the paeds appt thinking she was having absent seizures, nothing to do with her drinking. So all of your posts have been invaluable.

Thank you, this has also been really helpful to read. I really hope you get some answers and some help from the endocrinologist.

Out of curiosity, what does an endocrinologist do? I've heard of them and seen them on here. Maybe asking for a referral there for DD might be worth while depending on what paeds find?

Endocrinologists treat people with hormone disorders.

My niece was like this always asking for drinks. She would gulp them down even plain water and often ask for more. She had type 1 diabetes. Get her checked OP. It's just a sample of urine.

Hello, I've already done this and her urine came back clear, just a little over hydrated.

RTFT

Well today she has drank 4.7 litres of water.

It's an absolutely obscene amount of fluids. I have a whiteboard and a tally that I've been doing and today she has been for 14 wees, and she will need a wee or two in the night as well.

I really cannot restrict her as she gets so upset if I do, and she is only drinking water during the day so no sugar.

I'm really going to push this water diabetes tomorrow as since I've started to tally it, her drinks are going up by 4-6 cups per day.

I haven't made any big deal out of it and she has no idea I'm keeping a tally. But 4.7 litres is an obscene amount. She's had watermelon today, and has plenty of veg in her meals so she's getting water elsewhere too.

Tomorrow can't come quick enough now, I'm really nervous but SO glad I posted on here.

Good luck OP. 4.7 litres is a massive amount, especially when she's so young. I really hope they listen to you tomorrow.

Fwiw my friend's son who has water diabetes was diagnosed as a toddler and is an adult now, working and socialising and all the rest.

This is ridiculous - why are you allowing her to drink so much? You’re putting her in such danger allowing her to have that much to drink at such a young age!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you really need to think about signing up to some sort of parental medical/first aid class. I’m honestly flabbergasted you’ve allowed a 3 year old to drink nearly 5 litres of water in a day. Have you not ever heard of water intoxication? I despair

You despair?

I am taking her to see a paediatrician tomorrow.
I did a first aid class with St John's ambulance when she was tiny. There was NOTHING on it about excessive drinking.

I was advised by our family GP NOT to restrict her water under any circumstances, but keep an eye, and take the tally to the paediatrics team tomorrow, which I am doing.

I am trying my fucking best here and I reached out for help, and I'm glad I did.
But I don't need you sticking the knife in 'despairing' at my shit parenting. I am going to follow the instructions from a medical professional with regards to her water in take, than someone on mumsnet. Now leave me alone.

You'll be hard pressed to find any first aid classes that cover excessive water drinking.

I hope tomorrow goes well, it is good you are going to see a neurologist. Despite the name, Diabetes Insipidus has nothing to do with raised blood sugar, but can cause excessive thirst and pale urine. Neither a blood or urine test would show raised blood sugar.

Fingers crossed you get some answers.

Parental first aid doesn't tend to cover unusual metabolic disorders FFS.
The OP has an appointment with a paediatrician tomorrow.

Thank you ❤️

I'll be armed with the drink and urine tally, and the information I've received on here about the water diabetes. Do you know how they diagnose it at all? Is it a specific type of blood test?

Just ignore @Ivycott90 , why some people take pleasure from kicking other proactive, responsible, worried parents I have no idea. So supercilious and patronising.