Sugar levels in a child

[mpendergrass]

My daughter is 18 mths only and has only gained a few ounces since her 12 month weight.  She is very irratible and screams a lot.  She seems to eat much more then my 30 month old son who weighs 35 lbs.  I have noticed her shaking at times when she is reaching for things.  She has also lately been taking 3 to 4 hour long naps.  How do I test for hypoglycemia, her ped. does not seem to want to run the test and thinks everything is normal.  

[Deanna L Aftab Guy, MD]

Hypoglycemia is usually diagnosed with a blood sugar that is under 50 in a child with clear symptoms, your pediatrician may be hesistant to start getting random checks on her, without clear symptoms I understand. The children we see with hypoglycemia are usually pretty significant, seizures, extreme irritability. As part of her slow weight gain they may want to get labs and they can include electrolytes that would include a glucose, to make it pretty helpful getting it during a fasted state will help with your concern of hypoglycemia, talk with your pediatrician, the change from 12 to 18 months results in a child that was not as ambulatory and now is all over the place, hence she is burning the calories, some are also now very picky about eating rather than letting you feed them with a spoon and come off of the bottle and take only with a cup limiting some of the calories that they were getting prior. Keep a food diary as well. Then see your doc about once a month to weigh her or check in so nothing is missed if she is not gaining month after month.