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My son has been battling various illnesses the past two weeks, rashes, stomach bug and bronchitis. His blood sugar has been pretty high. Yesterday it was well over 500 and would not come down. The solution was to get new insulin because the insulin had only a week left until it expired. He is doing better today, but the past four days, he has been acting as if he is starving. I don’t know if I should take this as a growth spurt like most parents with two year olds would, or if there is a problem. Does anyone else have experience with this?
Responses
Gary Scheiner says
It is vitally important to check your child's urine (or blood) for ketones during an illness. The presence of ketones provides an early warning that an infection has developed. The high glucose that would not come down may have been due to dehydration rather than "bad insulin" (although you can't rule that out completely). During illness compounded by high blood glucose, dehydration is very common. When this occurs, insulin given below the skin may not absorb into the bloodstream. It may be necessary to give insulin into muscle or intravenously (at a hospital). Making sure your child consumes large amounts of fluids is critical.As for the hunger, it is probably due to going several days with diminished food intake. His growing body is trying to make up for "lost calories"!
