childhood diabetes

[grandma_inflorida]

Recently my 19 month old grandson got a hold of his dad's glipizide and chewed up 1- 1 1/2 tablets, they got most of the second one out of his mouth.  took him to the hospital where they immediately ran serum glucose levels, which came out to 47.  this was within 45 min. of the ingestion.  they started a glucose drip and fed him graham crackers and gator aide and monitored him overnight.  My question is .....could it be his glucose level was already low secondary to a developing diabetes type I or can that medicine act that quickly.  I think we may have stumbled on to something accidently.  I checked his nonfasting glucose level just now and it was 121.

Any ideas?

[momo6]

HELP!!!  I have two teenaged boys ages 13 and almost 15 who are overweight.  My oldest who is almost 15 is pre-diabetic.  My husband is a newly diagnosed diabetic and has it under control with Byetta and diet.  I have 4 other children ages 5 to 12 that are very thin.  For the last 3 years, we have done the following to try and help their weight.  Going to the gym before school 3-5 times a week - inlcuding a regular "boot camp class" and running at least a mile every time we go. Enrolling in sports. Snow skiing almost every Saturday and Holiday for the last 3 years.  Summer boating - wakeboarding, skiing - at least once a week.  As far as diet.  We eat only 100% whole grains.  I grind my own wheat and make a lot from scratch w/ no sugar or salt - pancakes, waffles, biscuits, pizza...  I have never kept junk food or soda in the house although they get it at school, family functions, activities, & such more than I think should be legal.  We have a dessert as a family probably once a month at the most.  I don't keep snack foods in the house except for fruit although I catch the kids making a piece of toast every once in a while.  Generally there is not a lot of snacking going on in our home.  Our portions I would say is the one thing that might be a little high but I don't think outrageous.  An example of a dinner meal for our family of 8 would be a 9x13 pan of some sort casserole with a salad and vegie.  There is usually no left-overs.  An example at breakfast would be 2-3 small/medium whole wheat pancakes w/ light syrup and no butter.  For lunches at school believe it or not and I can check this online, 70% of the time they get salad and breadsticks. (i know the breadsticks aren't great)  This may be a little high in portions - I am not sure.  Snacking at our house is very minimal.  Ok... we are not 100% perfect on this - when we go out I will order the kids a pizza.  Sometimes we take the kids to a buffet, and occasionally mac-n-chees is just way to easy to pass up.  But for the most part - 80 -90% of the time we are pretty diligent.  My boys last year went off sugar for 6 months and of course lost nothing on their BMI - but for the first time didn't gain anything either.  No progress - just stayed the same.

With all of this, they just keep gaining.  My oldest is the most active and he had grown 4 inches in the last 3 years and has gained over 40 pounds.  (he has not hit his growth spurt yet as verified by the doc)  He is 5'4 and weighs 165. His BMI borders on obese now.  My 13 year old is at 5'0 and weighs about 130.  He has gained 15 pounds in the last year.  I don't know what else to do!  I think there are some definite medical issues here.  I think that with the insulin resistance that their cells are not accepting the energy effectively and it is mostly being stored as fat.  On my study of Insulin Resistance, a calorie can become more than a calorie.

I have been to the doctor.  They tell me it is input as opposed to output.  They keep turning it back on me.  I don't know what else I can do.  I don't know why they keep gaining.  I feel that there are factors beyond my control.  My doctor won't even consider medication.  Is there medication that would help them process sugars correclty?  Doesn't it make sense that if your body can't process correctly that you NEED help losing weight?

I feel really desperate!  Wouldn't something like Metphormin or Byetta be great for anyone who is insulin resistant or pre-diabetic?  Any advice on what I can do to help my boys or if there is something that I am not doing right or at all that I can try.  I am at a complete loss!  

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

Actually, a tiny infant could react strongly to an adult's glipizide meds, but how quickly is really the question you are asking. 45 minutes after ingestion seems to be plenty of time for the medicine to start lowering his glucose levels. His non-fasting glucose seems very normal. I would guess that his reaction was indeed just that: a reaction to the glipizide.

But his dad could certainly occasionally do a random glucose test on the little guy if he thinks his son is showing any symptoms of either hypoglycemia or diabetes. An occasional random glucose test could clear up any fears fairly quickly, but do remember that normal, healthy people have glucose levels that change throughout the day.