Blood Sugar

Dear John,

Tonight, you were, once again, complaining of being thirsty and insisting you needed a water bottle in bed.

You also have been having many, many potty accidents in the last few months.

You also still refuse to eat anything that is not a carb. (With the exception of dairy... you do drink milk and eat cheese and yogurt.)

On the one hand, these are signs of a three year old striking his independence.  On the other hand, they are also signs of diabetes.

So, I took your blood sugar.  It was 250.  Which is just too high.

To be certain, I ran my own (104) and then redid yours.  It was now 170.

Hmmm.  But which reading was more accurate?  The 250 or the 170?  The 170 was still on the high side.  Your meal was, as usual, carb-o-licious, but it was two hours after your last carby-post meal snack and almost three hours from the start of dinner.

So I did what I think any reasonable mother would do.  No, I didn't let it go.  I went for a third, tie breaking prick.  And I bribed you with a brand new toy from the cabinet to get it.

Final reading?  120.  High normal.

What does it all mean?  Well, I spent some time on google and found a very, very useful article about inaccurate readings in small children.  Unlike older children and adults, small children do not necessarily wash their hands when they eat sticky things like fruit juice and fruit juice on the hands means extra undigested sugar in the blood for the prick.

In addition to your normal Cheez-Its and cheerios (and string cheese and yogurt) for dinner, you had one of your most exotic choices: kiwi.  A very juicy, sugary, sticky on the hands treat.

I am ready to call that the culprit and move on.  I think I was rubbing the kiwi juice off with each prick and that's why the levels were getting lower and although I think that 120 is the high end of normal, it still wasn't with perfectly clean hands, so there may have been some kiwi in that test as well.

But I am keeping my eye on you.  And next time, I'll wash your hands.

Love,
Mom