2 year old with high glucose test

[mrsturbo]

I have a two year old who has been in and out of the doctors office for almost a year.  My first thought was diabetes since his father has diabetes, even thought it is type 2.  He urinates very frequently in large amounts, his appetite goes up and down, and he is extremely skinny, to the point you can see his hip bones in the back.  The docs did a finger ***** and said it was within normal limits so it couldn't be diabetes.  Then we brought him back thinking maybe lead poisoning, tests were normal.  He then started to be lethargic, falling asleep frequently.  He was anemic and we treated with iron and lethargy improved somewhat.  I forced the docs to run blood tests thinking maybe leukemia and those tests were normal, but his kindneys looked bad.  His bun/creatinine ratio was three times the high normal limit.  The docs said he must be dehydrated.  Two weeks later kidney tests improved slightly but were way outside normal limits.  We are waiting for a pediatric GI appointment for over a month now.  Thinking maybe malabsorption of some sort, he frequently goes between diarrhea, to messy stools, to hard pellets.  Often when he wakes up from a nap he is very shky for a while.  Yesterday he woke up shaky and I told my husband to check his blood sugar with a glucometer.  He hadn't eaten anything but half a granola bar in about three hours and his blood glucose was 179.  Now I want to ask doctor to recheck for diabetes, but I don't think doctors are taking me seriously anymore.  Does any one have any advice other than find a new doc, which I plan to do this week?

[JDRF Volunteer SG]

Your family has obviously been through a lot with the odd symptoms. It appears that you do have a glucometer available, since his dad is a type 2 diabetic. Here is what I would suggest... write down the time and date of the 179 glucose reading and what he ate (and when) before that test. Then, for a week or two, do some more random glucose tests at home. And write down the same info -- time, date, and what time he ate before that test. I would suggest doing some fasting morning tests, some before meal tests, and some 2-hours after meal tests. See what his patterns are by doing this for a few weeks (even if the child doesn't like it -- this discomfort will go away soon), and keep a written log. Your husband surely knows what the normal glucose ranges are supposed to be, and you can get a better idea of whether there is a problem by seeing a pattern. Make sure you always wash and dry his hands thoroughly so that the tests are accurate. If you see glucose levels after meals going above the mid-140's, I would insist that his doctor run more tests for diabetes. A good doctor will listen to parents, and your written log of tests would be good evidence that things are not OK if they are running out of the normal 70-146 or so ranges.

[mrsturbo]

I forgot to mention one more of his strange symptoms, he has started to get grey hair with no family history of premature greying.