Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Hitting new lows??

DD#3 F, otherwise know as our little miss with diabetes, likes to keep things interesting.
We have been cruising along since changing to oral medication as far as her BGLs go and her last HbA1C was great.

Today I got her up from her nap at 2pm for a late lunch. I wiped and dried her hands as I usually do. The the reading was 2.8 (50), I checked again 16.6 (299). They couldn't both be right. Yikes. So I tested again and again 3.7 & 3.5 (67 & 63).
So she was low. Not too low. But the difference between the first 2 readings threw me.
I don't know if she put her finger on or in something when my back was turned between tests but it was weird the other 2 tests were on her other hands.

F hasn't had heaps of lows, which I am very thankful. Even when on multiple injection of insulin every day we only had a few real hypo incidents. If it wasn't under 3 (54) I just gave her extra food and/or reduced her dose of insulin.

Now I am wondering about what causes the slight lows she has had while on sulphonylureas. Does the specific mutation make a difference in how likely lows or highs are? F has the KCNJ11 - R201H mutation one of the most common to cause Neonatal diabetes.

The lowest BGL reading F has had have been after high carb meals. Today 2 small bananas at morning tea. I have been wondering if it is her body overshooting with insulin to conteract the sugar in her system. End result a bit low with the BGLs. Any ideas? Fellow science brains?

1 comment:

Christy said...

You know we've been dealing with this lately and through trial and error, and talking with Dr. Greeley, I think we have come to the conclusion that feeding simple sugars may tend to make their bodies overshoot insulin needs sometimes (I emphasize sometimes because other times it doesn't seem to make a difference, go figure). Anyway, I am trying now to make sure to feed a protein and/or a high fiber type of carb along with simple sugars as this has seemed to slow down the absorption of the simple sugars. For instance, if I feed Katie a banana, I will also give her an egg and a piece of whole grain toast with it. Graham crackers with peanut butter, cheese and crackers with pears, etc. Since doing this, we have seen much fewer lows (except when they just don't eat period which is always fun). I'm still playing with it and will let you know if I find out anything else. Hope that helps for now.