Does diabetes affect a person's ability to handle heat? Does anyone else notice this in their children? I googled and found some studies that suggests so, but also found some that suggested maybe not so. Figured I could ask my friends here.
The reason for asking is my son recently got back from a week-long boy scout camp. Daytime temps were generally in the low-to-mid 90's in the shade each afternoon at camp with high humidity. Despite pumping water into him and keeping a damp cloth on his head he seemed to easily overheat. After cooling down (either by the pool, cool shower), his mood changed dramatically and he was ready to get back into action.
The other kids seemed to be able to tolerate the heat much better. So, I was curious if this was a diabetes-thing, or, just an individual preference/tolerance thing.
My daughter has the same issues!! She gets hot humid and cranky!! I always thought it was her, but now you’ve got me curious. We used to live in Arkansas and now we are Wisconsin. She is much happier this summer than last summer. hmmmm.
We were in beautiful Swampeast Missouri. A couple times his sugars were high during the cranky moments, but other times they were smack dab in the good range.
I truly agree with what you are saying. I have been type 1 for 33 yrs now and both my kids also have type 1. I live in Canada for the last 2 weeks with the humidty it feels like 45 here. I have at least 2 low blood sugars a day as well as my kids and yes the crankiness comes with it. The same happens in the winter cause when it is cold outside your body uses up the sugars to warm you up. Lol I used to think I was allergic to the weather:)
I’ve been trying to figure out the same thing with my 5 year old daughter. Sometimes it seems to effect her, sometimes not. But I’m thinking that the times it seems to that maybe it’s because I can’t allow her to run around outside as freely as most children, so the others would be more used to it. Or maybe I’m projecting my worries onto her. I know for a fact my child will say she feels a certain way if I even hint that’s the way I think she should be feeling. What child doesn’t whine about the heat sometimes? A non-diabetic child’s complaints would be waved off more easily, they’d be told to drink some extra water and go play.
I’m not sure, but I’ve been the same way since childhood. I don’t remember having problems in the heat BEFORE my diabetes diagnosis at age 10, but I certainly did afterward. My blood sugars either stay astronomically high or won’t climb out of the depths. And the highs I get are often accompanied by vomiting, probably due to dehydration. Not sure if the dehydration causes the highs or vice versa. But my mom and dad have always sworn that diabetics have problems in the heat. My dad is a paramedic and always ran first aid at our summer camps and I wasn’t the only diabetic kid who’d be up there frequently to cool off.
I haven’t noticed my son compaining it is too hot or anything, but I have noticed that some days when it is really hot he has been really hi and others low. I have wondered if this could be from the heat. This week was really hot and one day he woke up low, went down to 1.6 at lunch and was only 4 a supper. the next day our meter ended up reading hi at supper time (after being 14 at breakfast and 17 at lunch- with correction insulin both times). This is the only time we have seen the meter read hi ever.
