2 YEAR OLD WITH LOW BLOOD SUGAR WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

QUESTION: My two year old son has low blood sugar of 49. The reason he had some testing done is because he can't get past the 3% mark on his growth chart for the past 8 months.

What does this mean that his blood sugar level is so low?

ANSWER: Hi there,

I understand your concern, as the normal blood glucose level of a 2-years-old child is between 100 and up to 180 mg/dl, because they have a very fast metabolism.

As they have a very fast metabolism and growth speed, they are using the glucose acquired with the food very fast, which leads to low blood glucose level if they do have irregular meals.

However, a blood glucose level of 49mg/dl is lower and the most worrisome thing is that your son is not able to pass the 3% mark.

Because of this, I think that it is a matter of inborn mistake in the glucose metabolism or hormonal changes like increased insulin secretion or hypopituitarism.

However, those conditions are very rare and other symptoms have to be observed and you haven’t mentioned anything like this.

In purpose to be sure that everything is ok with the glucose metabolism of your son, you should speak with endocrinologist, which work with babies.

Next, the low blood glucose level is observed in babies, which are not eating regularly. So in purpose to exclude this option, you have to start giving food or milk to your baby according to the meal plan provided by your pediatrician.

However, if you don’t have such thing (a meal plan), it would be better for you to talk with your pediatrician about it.

Regarding your last question - you have to know that glucose is the major source of energy. When there is no glucose, there is no energy for the proper function of the cells.

Besides this, when the cell are not functioning well, the body of your child is not able to grow. So, the cause of his inability to grow is the low blood glucose level.

However, you have to talk with a doctor about the estimation of the cause for the low blood glucose level. Besides this, keep in mind that you have to provide proper food to your child, according to the meal plan.

Hope it helped!

Dr.Alba