My son is 8 and has been dx’d for 4 years. His blood sugars have been good, his most recent A1c was 6.6. Last night before bed his sugar was 64, we gave him a snack and in 10 mins he was 50. He then had 4 oz of juice and began to have a seizure. He is fine, but this is scary. This is not the first time, but his sugars have been controlled for aleast 6 months. Anyone eles experience diabetic seizures?
Oh, I’m so sorry. This is one of my biggest fears. Riley has never had a seizure but I always worry that he will.
I am sorry too, I don’t have a child but a younger sister that I feel is like my kid sometimes, she has never had that happen either but is bigger fear. She has even been lower and not done that. Is your son on the pump?
Yes, he is on a pump. He is going for an eeg . His doctor thinks he may have a seizure disorder that is being triggered by drop in blood sugar. We’ll kow in a couple weeks. Thanks for your concern. His blood sugar has been lower than that also and been fine. It is strange.
Hi Pamela, my daughter is 11 years old and was dx’d 6 months ago. She’s had 3 seizures. Extremely scary. I’ve had her sleeping with me since the last one about 4 weeks ago and wake up about every 2 hours to see if she is sweaty that’s how I can tell she’s dropping. I’ve also given her snacks and she continues to drop sometimes. We just got the CGSM and we are waiting for a trainer to come by to see if that can help us pin point these drops. My heart goes out to you. It is the worst thing I have ever experienced : (
My daughter has not yet had a seizure, but I prepare myself for it all the time. A friend of mine has an 8 yr old and she constantly has seizures, but strangly has not been diagnosed with any kind of seizure disorder. They say it’s ever since she got on the pump. They even got a diabetes dog to alarm them when their daughter has a seizure. I know it can be a scary situation, and I only hope that ‘mother or father’ instinct comes out if it does happen. Good luck and I hope he is doing better.
My child has seizures. They were associated with low blood sugar. 4 doctors were aware of the situation for 2 years and never made a referral to a neurologist. An on call doctor with poor communication skills ( but good med sense) said she did not think it was from the low, because she did not think the # was low. I got the referral to the neuro.from my primary MD. He did a 45 min EEG, then a 24 hour one to dx the disorder. I asked him when he would like to see a diabetic … after 3 seizures? He said “no, after ONE”. By the way, there was no seizure history in the family. There are many triggers of seizures, not limited to low blood sugar. He also has been 36 and no seizure. It is a good idea to see the Epilepy website and a good neuro. ( It is also a good idea to change endos)
It has been a few weeks, what did you find out?
Yes. I volunteer at a diabetes summer camp every summer and we inevitably have a few kids who do have seizures. Talk about getting your adrenaline going!!! Very scary but calm, cool and collected is the way to get through these. Know what you need to do and have your tools handy (ie - glucagon, gel and a cell phone just in case you need the EMTs for D50 dextrose IV). Fortunately, my daughter has never had a seizure and I hope she never has to deal with that aspect of D. Funny thing was she had a personal low while I was with her as I dropped her off at her cabin for camp (24) and she was bopping around like it was a talent show. Just goes to show you that there is a lot more to D than numbers.
My daughter has had a few extreme lows too, and nothing. I remember checking her and she was 34. I asked her if she even felt shaky at all and she said “no, i feel great.” Crazy how this whole D works. Something new everyday.
Sorry you had to experience my worst nightmare. Never have experienced seizure or passing out, but we fear this. It could happen to anybody. 6.6 is a great A1c, 64 is not really that low. Seems from your post that he was dropping really fast. I have experienced this quick drop once or twice where she would not come up from juice. Or he could have been lower than the meter indicated. I would try, if he can swallow it, to use glucose tabs or smarties (same thing) to bring him up if he is under 70 as they work faster than juice. This may not have worked in this instance, though. I would ask endo team for their advice. Maybe they want to raise his target up a bit? I would probably let him run a little higher a night – a little – for a one or two week period. I’m sorry he had to go through this. I hope he does not remember it (I have heard that they often have no memory of a seizure). Let us know what you find out from the endo. Do not think this is going to recur, but it is very scary.
my little girl (just turned 5) has had 3 seizures since easter this year. It is frightening, but each time I’ve managed to get the hypostop gel in her before she lost conciousness. we had a baby in April, and on top of another todder, I’ve found I’m too tierd to notice her early warning sympoms all the time, hence the seizures. I’m so hoping she’ll learn how to spot her own lows soon.
My son Dominic is 11 and was dx’d in Aug of 2003 (he was 6 yrs old). From the very beginning his blood sugar would fall low and he would not have any awareness, there were times he would be as low as 22 and yet he was semi alert. Early last year he had pizza for dinner (lots of fat) so his blood sugar tends to stay higher for longer and we break down the Humalog into half and give him half up front and the other half later. That particular night his numbers were in the 200’s and he went to bed, I woke him up at 3am to use the bathroom (when he eats pizza his numbers tend to get higher and has peed in the bed). He was alert, sugars were in range and we all went back to bed. Around 6am we were waken by a sound I will never forget, the most guttural sound I have ever heard. We thought he was dreaming but when we turned him over his eyes were open but blank. I carried him to the living room and his dad called 911. His body was contorted and he was rolling with the seizure. All his limbs were stiff and bent in awkward positions. I tested him and his blood sugar was 50 ( I thought it would be lower). I rubbed apple juice on his gums, and I just talked to him and told him what was happening. I had no idea if he could hear me, there was nothing in eyes. I just thought that if by chance he could hear me I could at least comfort him. He was still seizing when the paramedics arrived, and was taken to the local children’s hospital. When he came back to us he told me that he could hear me and the sounds that he was making were his attempt to speak. His doctors do NOT believe his seizure was diabetes related, I personally think they are full of crap 
From the time we got to him and when the seizure subsided almost 15 minutes had passed, we have no idea how long he was seizing. I do everything in my power to not let that happen to Dominic again. Dominic’s grandparents live with us and they were there when it happened, his grandfather still has nightmares about it and can hardly speak about that night without having to leave the room to compose himself. I check his blood sugar all throughout the night because I am terrified history will repeat itself.
Hypoglycemic seizures do happen in diabetics.Honey rubbing on the gum is very fast to raise blood sugar,and glucagon has to be given.Once hypo progress to seizure,blood glucose has to be checked all day as it can persist.Few children I had to referr for EEG & neurology consultation to exclude epilepsy
So I have to ask… How many of us keep glucagon with us at all times? If not is it because:
A) you don’t know what glucagon is?
B) costs too much?
C) we keep it in the cabinet but not with us?
I’m here to tell you that sometimes glucagon isn’t even enough to bring someone out of their seizure but we really need to have this handy at all times!!! And for adults do you share this info and instructions for use with your friends/co-workers?
I think you should get an appointment with a neurologist ASAP, to find out, and see whether meds could prevent it. I don’t think my son’s have ever lasted that long, a minute or 2.
We’re not allowed to have glucagon, if I’m too late with the glucogel, or it doesn’t work then I have to call the paramedics who bring it with them.
My daughter had a seizure in March - it was the worst nightmare of my life, actually. She felt low and was 53, then 5 minutes later said she still felt bad, and she was 47, and kept dropping, just within a couple of minutes - she started to seizure at 37 and it lasted for 10 minutes - it was horrible - I did not know at the time that I should have given the glucagon shot - but now I do. Thankfully, we got enough in her that she came out of it on her own and before the ambulance got here. - But the seizure itself was horrible - just horrible. She has been 27 and talking to me before - but apparently what happens is not necessarily the number but also the rate at which she drops. We’ve had many times since then that her blood sugar would drop 2 or 5 per minute. I will tell you that since her seizure, her blood sugars have never been the same - she is all over the board. In fact, at times, she is overly sensitive to insulin or to carbs - so she is hard to predict. I just started on a pump in August - and I don’t have near as many lows. We check her BG every night at midnight and at 3am.
I have glucagon with me at all times.
Why can’t you have glucagon?