My daughter Julia (she’ll be 5 this month) was diagnosed with Type 1 on May 3, 2007. Her latest hemoglobin A1C was 6.4% (in July). Our endocrinologist said this number was good, but it could illustrate that she’s having too many lows.
He’s also suggested that we try and keep her glucose levels between 100 and 200. He said the number for kids Julia’s age should be higher because of her rapidly growing body.
I feel like our target is really wide! Anyone else out there have a big range like that?
2)What are your personal glucose targets for your kid? Are they different any from your physicians?
For kids that have had it for a while… did your blood sugar targets change at some point as you get older?
Thanks for the input,
Sarah
Mom of Julia type 1, age almost 5
& Katie non-diabetic, age 1
Hi Sarah,
those are almost exactly my son’s targets. of course we are canadian and put it 5 - 10 mmols. i have my converter handy when talking to all you american folk. he averages around 11.
sam is going to be five this september and he was diagnosed a little over a year ago. his A1C is 9.4. we are aiming for 7, but can’t seem to get there no matter how hard we try!
100-200 is our target also, my son is now 23 months old. I believe it’s higher to prevent lows, long ago I had an aunt with type 1, she was diagnosed 60 years ago at the same age as my son (20 months) and she had chronic lows because they couldn’t monitor it like we did now-she became mentally retarded and developed epilepsy-somewhere I read that could be related to frequent lows. My grandfather said she had them constantly, like numerous times a day. My personal target is the same as my sons endo team has given me, I agree with them on that.
Our target range is also 100-200, but we correct to 140 in the daytime and 180 at night. I don’t treat low blood sugars above 80. I do think that pumping makes it easier to hit our targets without going low.
My daughter is soon to be seven and our day time target is 90-120 and night time is120-140, even though I believe her Dr suggested a target of 140-180 for night time.
As she is getting older, her target is moving to the lower numbers. She has had diabetes for almost three years now and we started at 120-200, then moved to 100-180, and now are at a lower bracket.
It was very hard to be within a target while on Novolog/Novolin, got a little easier when we switched to Novolog/Lantus, and sooooo much easier now on a pump.
Our doctor said that at her age he will be happy to see anything below 9.0 for A1C tests, and even that was a challenge in the beginning. Since going on a pump, she has been in the 7’s and we are ok with that.
What gets me is that on the sheet my endocrine just mailed us it said that normal A1C is from 4.5-6.1…kinda confusng…normal for who?? I am guessing Julia is slowly coming out of the honeymoon phase, we just had to re-adjust her ratios…but yeah, her numbers have stayed pretty low overall. Our doctor also got the results back on her type 1 diabetes antibodies. She only has antibodies for insulin (The anti GAD 65 antibodies and islet cell antibodies were negative.) so I am guessing her diabetes will get a bit more dramatic when she begins to develop more antibodies.
I think that’s the range for adults, this is what it is for children https://www.parknicollet.com/Diabetes/disease/type1Diabetes/bloodGlucose.cfm
Tony’s endo also said that they want to bring his A1C down slowly, so his last one was 9 point something but they said that’s good since it went down a point.
Sarah, The normals on your endo sheet refer to people without diabetes. People without diabetes rarely would have an A1c above 6.
My daughter was dx’d 9+ years ago - I don’t really remember what her blood sugar targets were but we were always (and still are) told that aiming for an A1c below 7 is dangerous. Adults are advised to aim below 7 however, especially women who want to have kids.
When Riley was first diagnosed (at 3) his target was 125-225. His endo was very big on preventing lows. But, when we switched endos, she is happy with suagars as long as he’s not having too many lows.
Riley’s target sugar changes depending on the time of day. But, basically it’s 100-180.
And, as far as A1C goes, if your child has a near normal A1C without consistant lows then everything is OK. Consistant lows in young children can lead to developmental delays, since their brains are still growing. The American Pediatrics Assoc. recommends an A1C of 7.5 But, Riley’s last A1c was 7.0 and the one before that was 6.6. His endo is fine with that because he’s not having a lot of lows, just a lot of in range sugars.
We’ve been trying to stay on top of her lows, but as she’s kind of in the “honeymoon phase” still, she will get lows randomly. We’re checking very frequently still, and not “aiming” on the low side, but some times for no reason she’ll give me a shock with a 53 (other times a shock with a 400!). I don’t think these are happening frequently, but I am sure that it’s affecting her A1C…I just hope it’s not hurting her developmentally - that’s something I never thought about (or even heard about from the Dr. - but it totally makes sense!) He just told me that low blood sugar can trigger seizures, or comas…bad enough! Thanks for the info!
My daughter is 3 1/2 and her range is 80-180. We correct for any blood sugars over 150 and anything under 80 is considered low for us. We have only been on this road for about 4 months now so her range hasn’t changed yet. She had her first A1C since the hospital and she had a 7.2. The endo’s seemed very pleased with it.
Westin is 9, almost 10, and we have moved his targets down to 100-135, not because the dr told us to, but because we have cgms now. That allows me to be a bit more aggressive with his numbers! Like last night he hovered around 100 most the night. I would never have allowed that before CGMS. Now I can’t say we are always in those targets, but that is what we correct to.
Oh gosh where do I begin? My son who just turned 6yrs old in July 07’ was recently diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. Emotions began, shocked, confused, angry, knowledgable, confused and angry again. Let me explain briefly…my child has been in the hospital for about 3days now, the Endo docs told us that his levels are high because they don’t know how long his body has been immune to Insulin and it takes awhile to adjust. I get that, I do, but what I don’t get is how after 3days my son levels are still at 268-468?!! What’s wrong with this picture? I talked to my husband who’s still at the hospital with my son and he refuses to argue the matter, I on the other hand called up the nurse and told her this levels where unacceptable and I wanted to know what the residents at night thought of this. Am I right, or wrong to get angry? Someone…PLEASE HELP ME!!! Tell me if i’m wrong or right!!! I beg you.
Patty - get angry! I challenged my doctors – and I left the ones that I found incompetent, until I found the one that has SAVED us. If something doesn’t feel right to you … argue it. YOU are the only true advocate for your child. Yes, doctors are supposed to know what they are doing, but honestly, a lot of them just regurgitate a bunch of garbage.
Do your own research until you feel comfortable to challenge them. Its been a few months – how are things going?
Now I can’t say we are always in those targets, but that is what we correct to.