Reliable source for blood glucose targets

[antonia]

Would anyone know of a reliable source that states what healthy blood glucose ranges are for non diabetic children? I'm getting frustrated, I seem to only find info related to diabetes. Maybe target ranges are the same whether diabetic or not, I just don't know.

I found one source that seems unrelated to diabetes: www.livestrong.com/article/28521-glucose-levels-children/
Do you concur with these statements or do the stated ranges ring true?

Thank you,
Antonia

[rysmom14]

Hi Antonia,

I found this website. www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/Diabetes/hypoglycemia/Pages/index.aspx

It talks about diabetic hypoglycemia and also non diabetic hypoglycemia, but I don’t think it is specific to children. There is a chart most of the way down that says

Without Diabetes
Fasting Levels= 70-99
After meals= 70-140

With Diabetes
Fasting Levels= 70-130
1-2 Hours after the start of the meal = below 180

There is also a disclaimer that says that if you have diabetes, a sugar level below 70 is considered hypoglycemic.

My son’s genetic Dr. has just touched on this subject because he sleeps for a long time over night and gets sweaty. She has told us that the “danger zone” is below 60. After looking at the website you attached, I can say that my son’s sugars run lower than that normally for a 2 year old ( his seem to be closer to the adult levels) and they didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with that.

From having family members with diabetes, I know that different people actually “feel” hypo at different numbers. Some its under 100, and some its under 70, so I’m sure this is going to be similar to most things I am learning about HFI. Everything is different for each person. The website lists some symptoms to look for, and you can always check your child’s sugar at different times and keep a journal.

[antonia]

Thanks rysmom. My daughter's seems to run more along the lines of an adult as well. Once she gets into to the clinical danger zone, our docs say it's below 50, she is very sick. Obviosly, I would like to know at what point she begins to "feel" hypoglycemic. It's probably unrealistic to think there is such a thing when there's such a wide range of "normal".

Most recently she was having some symptoms and I was trying to figure out if they were metabolic/hypo or something else. I've decided it was due to something else. I never got near a clinically low BG reading (however they were not near what they "should be" for children either, so I just did not know). Her symptoms were also slightly different then when she has been in metabolic distress in the past. Metabolic distress she usually has nausea and stomach pain which turns to vomiting when blood sugar gets clinically low. But this time we had nausea but no stomach pain and she additionally had headaches, some heart pain (heart burn?) and bad tasting burps (reflux?). After I researched, I thought her symptoms were consistent with getting too much vitamin C. So I stopped the vitamin C powder and she got better. Turns out children in her age range need very little vitamin C, who knew? So this is the guessing game I always find myself in. Blood glucose definitely has its limitations.