Low blood sugar child, also called hypoglycemia, can be caused by many different things. The good news is that it is preventable as long as you keep it under supervision. Some kids tend to have problems with low blood sugar more than others. There are common signs that you can keep an eye out for. Once you notice some signs of low blood sugar in your kid, you can then change habits to control the blood sugar levels.
Low blood sugar child symptoms can seem to show up out of the blue. Kids often have big mood swings and we often dismiss them as “a phase” but it can often be a sign of fluctuating blood sugar levels. As a matter of fact, an ADD diagnosis is often the incorrect diagnosis for a child who suffers from hypoglycemia.
Some other common signs of hypoglycemia are turning pale, pounding heart and clammy or shaking hands. The child may not be able to let you know that they feel like they need to eat. They also may be feeling signs of headache or irritability but simply can not convey that to you. If you don’t know that this is the first signs of low blood sugar, you might well just write it off as your child having a bad day or throwing a temper tantrum.
If you start to notice one or more of these warning signs, the best thing to do is give your child a quick sugar spike. Fast acting sugar in the form of juice, dextrose tablets or just a spoonful of sugar can help alleviate the symptoms. You don’t need a lot either, just 4 ozs. of sweetened fruit juice or 2 tbsp. of sugar will be all that is needed. This quick dose of sugar will usually reverse the symptoms in just a few minutes.
If you want to stop the problem before it starts, all you have to do is make sure your child eats at regular intervals throughout the day. Having too long of a time period between meals, especially if your child is getting a lot of physical activity, can cause a drop in blood sugar.
It’s easy to have changes in your schedule from one day to the next, but your kids system isn’t going to be able to handle those changes as well as you would. Try to keep them on a set schedule from one day to the next, no matter how crazy your schedule gets.
Make sure, too, that you don’t feed your kids high carbohydrate meals. When there are a lot of carbs in a meal, your body thinks that it is getting too much sugar and it produces more insulin. The problem is that with a high carb meal, the increase in insulin can cause blood sugar levels to drop dramatically.
Any child can be susceptible to low blood sugar, not just kids with diabetes. Low blood sugar can affect anyone at any age. Low blood sugar child isn’t a big deal and can be easily prevented.
