possible type 1 diabetes

My 7 year old son drinks a lot, urinates frequently, is extremely irriatable, complains of headaches and stomachaches, and is always tired even with 10+ hours of sleep.  These behaviors come and go with him, but right now they are pretty extreme.  At his last year's well child visit, I asked his doctor about the possibility of him being diabetic.  They always test his urine for sugar, and told me that he didn't have any sugar in his urine, so he was fine.  Is this definitive?  His checkup is coming soon and I would like to know if I should ask for a blood test.  Thanks!

[Zoelula]

No, it is definitely not the way to check for diabetes! Not for the last fifty years or so. The way to check for diabetes is with a blood test. A fasting blood sugar could be taken and a normal person would have under 100. A pre-diabetic would have 100 to 125 and a diabetic would have 126 or over.They could also do an OGTT which tests response to a sugary drink over a period of a couple hours (and again, test the blood).  But the standard to diagnose diabetes is a blood test that measures A1C which is an average of blood sugars for a period of about 3 months. An A1C under 5.7 is normal. 5.7 to 6.5 is pre-diabetic and over 6.5 is diabetic. I would request this test from your doctor and if he wants to test only urine, I would request another doctor, or do your own testing with a glucose meter or an A1C testing kit either one of which you can purchase at any drugstore.

[all6ofus]

They will often check the urine for keytones, however we caught my sons early enough he was not spilling keytones.  I would say a simple blood test would be the first place I would start.  Find someone who has a bg tester and do a simple finger poke (with a new clean needle in the poker) then go from there.  IF his numbers are high take him to the doctor and get a blood test done.  If not watch him and monitor him often.  Also often pharmacy's have free monitors with a start of 5 test strips or so you could do that.