Kids are rarely suspected of having diabetes. In fact, most kids are sent home with a diagnosis of a flu or virus when they first visit a pediatrician for tiredness, vomiting, extreme hunger and/or extreme thirst, fever, and body aches. It is not until a child ends up in the hospital after passing out that it becomes apparent that something else is really wrong with them. If you suspect that your child's week-long bout of "flu" that has oddly seemed to disappear and reappear twice is not the flu, but is pediatric diabetes, insist that your child be tested. If your child's test results reflect a healthy blood glucose reading, then you need to do more to make sure it is not diabetes. Here is what you should do next:

Ask That Your Child Be Fed a Snack, Any Snack, and Retest

If your child is alert enough to eat, ask pediatric services to provide a healthy snack. If your child does have diabetes, then even a healthy snack will cause a spike in blood sugar. About ten minutes after your child has finished the snack, ask the nurse or pediatrician to check the glucose again. If there is a significant spike then your child has diabetes. If the glucose still looks normal (albeit on the high end of normal), ask for an A1C test.

The A1C Test

Thousands of people are mistakenly told annually that they do not have diabetes -- then they end up in the hospital in a sugar coma! A simple test known as the A1C hemoglobulin test is even more effective at finding hidden diabetes, and it works in children, too. This test looks for the amount of glucose that has attached itself to red blood cells in the last three months. It gives doctors an "under the microscope" view of real blood sugar levels in the body, and whether or not there have been any serious and repetitive spikes in the last few months. If your child's A1C test shows that the red blood cells have a ton of glucose attached to them, then your child is officially a diabetic, even if he/she is not currently experiencing high blood sugar readings.

When All of the Above Are Negative

When you have exhausted all of the tests for diabetes and all of them come back negative, you can rest easy. Maybe your child really does have the flu after all. Still, it is worth limiting sugary sweets and high simple-carbohydrate foods to improve your child's health.

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