# Hypo unawareness



## rlw890245 (Mar 8, 2010)

Hi my 3 year old is totally unaware if shes low, shes had a couple of 1.9, 2.1 readings and she seems fine, our DSN sys this is normal in young children what is your experience with young children?? Ruth xx


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## jimmysmum (Mar 8, 2010)

Hi Ruth,

Our experience is the opposite, shes only had 2 hypo's so far (only diag 3 weeks) but in the 1st instance she had just woken up and was sweating badly so we tested, and the other time she went grey, had sunken eyes and dark circles and she actually started to 'go' her eyes were rolling around in her head, both hypos she was around the 3 mark so not the low end. Obviously things might change but i hope we spot them, i wouldnt have thought our daughter would be able to tell us if shes low shes too little xx


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## rlw890245 (Mar 8, 2010)

Thanks, G did show some mild symptoms of hypos when she was newly diagnosed (last november) but not since christmas for some reason.


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## Adrienne (Mar 8, 2010)

Hiya

What is happening is that I imagine your daughter is having quite a few lows by the sounds of it and so her body is getting used to the lows, which is not good, and so not responding to them.    The only way to get the feeling or signs back is to run a bit high for a while to guarantee no hypos.   

However saying that, my daughter never had hypo awareness until a few months ago and now every so often she says she feels dizzy but when testing she could actually be at normal range !

What insulin regime is your daughter on?   I have my fingers crossed so very tightly that you are going to tell me 4 injections a day (MDI) but I have a funny feeling you are going to say 2 mixed insulins.

If that is the case and your child is on 2 mixes then you are going to have a whole heap of trouble getting any sort of control whatsoever.   These insulins should be banned and in Europe and the USA they don't use them, they go straight onto MDI or a pump, even little kiddies.

If you are on mixes and want to know more about MDI as the earlier and younger you start, the better for all involved (from my experience and of others), let us know and I can tell you more.


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## ruthelliot (Mar 9, 2010)

Hi,
My litlle boy developed really good hypo awareness about 4-5mths after diagnosis and would always come and say "low" except in situations where it had come on him quickly - this seemed to be at times where he was relatively inactive eg in the buggy and so prob didn't notice the symptoms himself. He seems to have completely lost his awareness in the last few weeks but he is having a lot of hypos at the moment so this would correlate with what Adrienne says. I always ask him how he feels if I think he's low and if he is I tell him so hopefully he gets the connection as like you say he's still too young to realise the significance, though he knows what he needs and the first sign is often the sound of him dragging a chair over to reach the fruit bowl!!
Ruth


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## stacey mardybum walsh (Mar 9, 2010)

maybe u should talk to the diabetes team about getting her on a pump to help with her warning signs, mine never came back and only last night i was happy walking around at 1.5 im currently waiting for my funding to come though


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## rlw890245 (Mar 10, 2010)

Thanks, G is on 2 injections a day, going to clinic next month so think I should enquire about 4 times a day injections -just worried how to cope with MDI when she starts school in september.


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## Adrienne (Mar 10, 2010)

Ah ha good question.    The best solution is to get her on 4 injections as soon as you can, way before starting school.   It is harder to persaude a team to change to 4 once at school, they can potentially come up with lots of excuses.  


Make an appointment to see the head teacher sooner rather than later and go and see her/him.    Say that your daughter is starting there and has medical needs whilst at school.    Say you will have a care plan and a daily plan and that she will need finger testing and an injection at lunch time.

Don't ever offer to go in and help and do the injections.  Always leave the ball in the schools court.    They have to find staff to volunteer to do the injection.   If none volunteer then they are under a duty of care to keep your child safe and so will have to find someone else where who will, even in if community nurses come in and do it (that is what happened with my daughter but for other reasons, staff were quite happy to but its a long story).

If you get the head teacher on side you will have no problems.   So be friendly but strong and don't ask if its possible can this happen, you should say 'this needs to happen to keep her safe at school etc etc'.

On www.childrenwithdiabetesuk.org there are care plan examples and a book which you can adapt for your daughter at school.   Its called 'I am Rose' written by Becca (on this forum).   It is phenomenal and should be in all schools, well worth you having a look and maybe getting is rejigged for when you meet the head perhaps.

The idea is not to frighten them until they have agreed and trained everyone.  Let us know if you need help.


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## Copepod (Mar 10, 2010)

Ruth - I guess that it's more an issue of a 3 year old's difficulty in explaining how they're feeling, rather than not being aware of feeling hypoglycaemic. Even as an adult, I'd have difficulty explaining to someone else, but have agreed with my partner that if I ever say "I need food", I mean that I need something sugary. Might be worth trying to agree on some words for your child to use?


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## Adrienne (Mar 10, 2010)

Hiya Copepod

That is a good idea.

However with kids, especially the young ones, they really don't show or feel hypo, no idea why but it happens.    Some do and these are the lucky ones.   Some of the  younger ones will grow to be able to feel symptoms.   Jessica never felt or showed anything until after we had tested and found she was hypo, it was only then that she used to go in and out of consciousness, never before, really weird.   She never got to the point where she felt odd until it was too late and she was at collapsing point.   She collapsed on another child during a spelling test at school one day,  that was a shock for the other child.

A few times she would go white as a sheet but would be down in the 1's by then.

This is why testing really frequently is a must with these kids and when docs say only test 4 times a day, it really gets up my nose, they can't possibly know what is happening inbetween with lows and highs.


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