TonyaR,
Hello! I'm not a medical professional, just the parent of a kid going through a similar situation. I am going to tell you our story in hopes that something may help you. I have a 7yr old with ADHD he is under weight. He also is a very thirsty child and he urinates a lot. I took him to the doctor back in August of 2006. She gave us a glucose monitoring system, and had me check him for one week 3 times a day. She said she was looking for before meal readings of over 130-140mg/dL and 2 hours after meal readings that were over 180mg/dL. When we went back he seemed to be ok. So the doctor wanted to check his weight blood glucose once a week.
June of this year I noticed that he lost weight so I checked his weight and he lost 6lbs. I took his blood glucose reading and he was 193 mg/dL fasting. When I took him back to the doctor he had large keytone
Hi TonyaR,
You're right, I'm no doc, but I do know that an A1c of 5.4 is normal, so I wouldn't worry. You say he's always been a thirsty kid, so that's normal for him-- if his thirst suddenly spiked, that would be different. But of course keep an eye on it, hopefully without pricking him too much for no reason. If he starts losing weight, that's an issue. Having to wake up at night to pee a couple of times because you're drinking so much (and peeing out so much) is also a sign.
The signs of type-1 diabetes are extreme thirst and urination, rapid weight loss and blood sugars of typically much higher, like 400, 500, 700. My daughter lost 20 pounds in a month and had sugars of 450 at diagnosis, and we seem to have caught it fairly early, because she wasn't sick and didn't have to be hospitalized.
Good luck with him. If you want to make extra sure, you should see an endocrinologist instead of an internist.