Why does hypoglycemia occur?
The main reasons for hypoglycemia in children with diabetes are: eating very little after insulin injection; not eating extra meals or not adjusting the insulin dose after a lot of exercise; injecting insulin in too large a dose or the wrong dosage.
What is hypoglycemia?
Hypoglycemia is a decrease in the level of glucose in the blood. When it is low to a certain degree, our body will show some uncomfortable or even unpleasant symptoms, such as cold sweat, hunger, dizziness, numb lips, confusion, sleepiness and drowsiness, or trembling, crankiness, nervousness, and even coma in severe cases.
There are generally three types of blood sugar levels when hypoglycemia occurs in children with diabetes: (1) normal level hypoglycemia of 3.6 to 3.9 mmol/L; (2) high level hypoglycemia of 3.9 to 4.4 mmol/L; (3) low level hypoglycemia < 3.6 mmol/L.
What are the adverse effects of hypoglycemia?
The unpleasant symptoms of dizziness and faintness that are manifested when hypoglycemia occurs can make you afraid of hypoglycemia and even create anxiety.
In addition, severe hypoglycemia may damage brain function, leading to a decrease in memory and calculation ability and thus affecting learning ability.
How to prevent hypoglycemia?
1.Inject insulin according to the dose recommended by your doctor and check if the dose is correct before injection.
2.Eat regularly according to the doctor’s recommendation, do not skip or eat less.
3.Carry some food (such as cookies, candies) with you when exercising to prevent hypoglycemia.
4. reduce the insulin dose appropriately when exercise is expected to be relatively heavy.
5.Strengthen blood glucose monitoring and record it, ask doctors to help adjust insulin dose and detect the tendency of hypoglycemia in time.
6. Carry a first aid card with you when you go out to provide information about first aid, so that you can get help and treatment in the shortest possible time in case of severe hypoglycemia.
What should I do when hypoglycemia occurs?
When hypoglycemia occurs, take some glucose tablets or sugar cubes, or sugary drinks immediately. If your hypoglycemia is severe, you need to go to the hospital as soon as possible.
Can I still exercise if I have diabetes?
Of course you can. Exercise is very important to stay healthy, whether you have diabetes or not. Children with diabetes should schedule some time each day for physical activity. You can dance, walk briskly, jog, play ball, swim, play games, and do other activities that interest you.
Exercise will lower your blood sugar. If you exercise more than usual, reduce your insulin dose or eat more food to ensure that the balance between insulin and food and exercise is maintained. Test your blood sugar before exercising. If your blood sugar is below 5-6.1mmol/L, it is recommended to eat a little and wait for your blood sugar to rise before exercising. If blood sugar is very high, higher than 15mmol/L, ketone body level (blood or urine) should be measured before exercise. If ketone body level is high, insulin should be injected first and wait for 1-2 hours before starting exercise.
Can’t eat candy and ice cream if you have diabetes?
Of course it is not absolute. Children with diabetes can still eat candy and ice cream if they adhere to their insulin therapy, eat a balanced diet and get some exercise. However, a doctor or parent needs to calculate the calories of these foods and reduce other foods or increase the amount of insulin to keep blood sugar stable. For example, 15g of candy requires an extra 1 unit of insulin. Blood sugar should be monitored before and 0.5 hours after eating sweets, and 1-1.5 hours after eating ice cream or chocolate, so that your doctor can better understand what kind of effect the sweets you eat bring on your blood sugar and how to adjust your insulin dose.
In addition, we need to be aware that eating too many sweets is not healthy, can increase weight and also prone to tooth decay.