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My 7-year-old daughter was diagnosed 4 months ago and is in a major honeymoon period. She has weeks where she will only need a half unit of insulin all day and her blood sugar stays in the 80s and is often low. When her blood sugar levels start to rise into the high 100s and low 200s...and I can tell another batch of beta cells are gone, it's like she becomes a totally different kid. She refuses to pay attention in school, do her homework, help around the house, do her blood tests and she is mean to her siblings. Then she has a couple of days where she is a complete mess. She has a 3 hour long meltdown... and then on the day after her meltdown, her blood sugar levels are back down in the 80s and 90s and she is often low. She will be in a great mood and catch up in school, help around the house, do her homework without us asking, etc. This will last for a few weeks and then as her blood sugar levels start to rise it starts all over again. Is this normal? I didn't think anything of it until I started to pay attention to the timing of the change in her behavior and in this fourth month it happened like clockwork. Can the honeymoon period cause mood and behavior fluctuations too?
Responses
Ginger Vieira says
Simply put, blood sugar fluctuations can and will impact behavior whether it's during the honeymoon period, or twenty years from now when you're daughter is a grown adult and experiencing the kind of fluctuations we all experience from time to time. With age, maturity and experience, she can gain more control of those behavior changes, but at the same time, your brain relies on second-by-second delivery of glucose, and when we mess with the amount of glucose being pumped through our bloodstream, it effects our mood, our behavior, how we literally feel.As an adult I can tell you that when I have low blood sugars, I sometimes feel impatient, irritable, and I always feel very tired and grouchy. When my blood sugar is high I feel like maple syrup is running through my veins and I don't have enough energy to think thoughtfully and clearly. When my blood sugar is too high, I just want to curl into a ball and pull a blanket over my head.
The best thing you can do, I think, is to help your daughter become aware of the feelings and changes that come with those fluctuating blood sugars, so she can not only control the impact it has on her behavior, but also so she can stop and think, "Oh, I'm suddenly feeling very impatient, maybe I should check to see if my blood sugar is out of range...."
