My four year old has type 1 diabetes and this past weekend she became very ill. Vomiting, loss of appetite, etc. She stayed in the hospital for a few days and we had trouble keeping her blood sugar in range. She kept going low. She is now home, but still doesn’t have an appetite and we have had to lower her insulin doses. One glucose tab before she got sick would have shot her up at least 80 points within minutes. Today at 11:30am, lunch time, her blood sugar was 102 (good number). We gave her 40grams of carbs for lunch and 1/2 unit. Before she got sick we would have given her 1 unit based on her Insulin to carb ration and correction factor. At 1:30pm she was 61. We gave her 24 grams of sugar pop (soda), 6 grams worth of candy, and 5 grams of crackers which equals 35 grams. These are the numbers we seen next…
1:50pm - 74!!
2:10pm - 104
2:50pm - 134
3:40pm - 142
If we would have given her 35 grams of all this fast acting carbs before this weekend, she would of went higher than a kite!! Can anyone tell me why this would be happening? Could an infection in the body make this happen? The doctor’s at the hospital said that she had a urinary tract infection. Does antibotics play a part in our madness? They gave her some antibotics in her IV.
Tonight at dinner time (5:30pm) she was in the low 100s and we decided not to give any fast acting insulin(Novolog) to cover it. I’m wondering what she will be later. We still gave her the long acting insulin (Levemir).
If you have any comments or if something similar has happen to you please add to this discussion. I’m very frustrated!
I went through almost 2 weeks of lows from vomiting just recently. I had to not give myself any insulin until my BG was about a certain amount and then just bits at a time. I have also been on certain antibiotics that cause lows because of how they disrupt the intestinal track. The ones in the mycin family and penicillin family. But those are so safe compared so I deal with it.
There are certain illnesses like for instance a sinus infection that always send me high but anything to do with the stomach and I experience what you are saying. All you can really do is what you have done and it will pass although I know how scary it is.
Thanks for taking such good care of her.
Be loved
I had a really bad flu a few months ago and for the full first day I could NOT get my sugars up no matter what I did. The next day I could not get the down. Not sure if that’s typical or not
The body resets itself. In the absence of carbs, the levemir was what she was getting and it was keeping her in the normal range. Also in the absence of carbs the insulin resistance that had been occurring was dropping.
I had a big fight with a general doctor regarding this. Everytime my son has a stomach flu he ends up in hospital. This doctor didn’t want to do it and everytime my sons bg drop I had to give something to eat and thar upsets the stomach again and he vomits again… The one thing I know is one should always give insulin. If Bg is low the doctor should give glucose intravenoulsy. If bg rises above 13mmol ( 230) he then should change it back to saline and so forth.
I worries myself sick everytime he gets ill and doesn’t want to eat - I hate it- I always wonder should I give less should I not. I realy must say the pump is much easier in this regard.
Another thing that helps is this - I did try it once and it worked like a charm.
The book by Ragnar Hanas explaines it very well here is it at google books : (read page 101 and 102) There’s two good books: TYPE 1 DIABETES
A Guide for Children, Adolescents, Young Adults- and their Caregivers Everything You Need to Know to Become an Expert on Your Own Diabetes by Ragnar Hanas copyright 2007 and Type 1 Diabetes in children, adolescents and young adults
Yes. I became quite ill while on vacation once, and had to dramatically cut my insulin. I was too sick to eat for 3 days, and I had great difficulty keeping my nuimbers in a safe range. I cut my insulin to about 25% of my usual total daily dosage.
Thank you for the information. We did the mini dose glucagon using an insulin syringe which seemed to work for a little while, but with her continuing to vomit, etc. an ER trip was a definite. I’ll have to look into this book. I have one (it has the pink panther on it) that has helped me understand this disease alot, but this one also sounds like a keeper too.
Thank you to all of you for writing a comment to this post. Olivia is doing much better. We cut her long acting insulin (levemir) in half and are back to our regular insulin to carb ratio (I:C) and correction factor with her fast acting insulin (Novolog). Her appetite is coming back and we have a follow up visit at the doctor’s office next week. This was our first real illness since diagnoses and we learned alot and made it through! We are going to continue adjusting her insulin until we get back on track.
