You like the Sprite on me?
Wednesday morning, my son was throwing up. The night before, we went through the usual fight about him not wanting dinner that we made and instead wanting something else that had more sugar in it. I put my foot down and he went to bed without dinner, though he could have had all the lasagna he wanted but not poptarts. He threw up a few times that morning and I wasn’t going to send him to school like that. So, I stayed home with him. And scheduled a pediatrician’s appointment.
He sat on the couch watching TV and drinking Sprite to settle his stomach. He sat there for about four hours. He finally got hungry and asked for Froot Loops. Having felt bad because he was sick and hadn’t eaten the night before, I gave in and let him have some. And I let him have another bowl. We get to the doctor’s office where they run tests and whatnot. The doc comes back, alarmed, and says that my son’s blood sugar is “over 300”. And they think he may have diabetes. I inform the doc that he had the Froot Loops so that was probably it. My son chimed in to say that, when I wasn’t looking, he snuck a cereal bar or maybe two. And, of course, the Sprite. Still, wanting to be safe rather than sorry, follow up tests were scheduled, as was a trip to an endocrinologist.
Just a bit ago, I got the final word that he does not have diabetes. His spike was caused by a combo of not eating dinner the night before, dehydration from vomiting, and a diet consisting almost entirely of sugary products because I felt sorry for him.
Several doctor visits, tests, vials of blood, screaming, and hundreds of dollars later, it’s because of poorly timed Froot Loops. The moral is no more FrootLoops before doctor appointments.
September 27th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Happy to hear no problems with the youngun. Well, no diabetes at least. Sorry to hear about the doctor bill. Something to remember when my son grws up a bit more..
September 27th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Ah, don’t be such a softy!
September 27th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Learned long ago, when the price to stop the yelling and/or whining or puppy eyes involves sweet, the answer is NO!
September 27th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
“though he could have had all the lasagna he wanted but not poptarts”
That boy ain’t right.
Either that or your lasagna must REALLY suck.
September 27th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Start reading the contents box on cereal before buying it. Set some sort of sugar limit for cereal that goes home. BTW, Target has the best prices for cereal, better than China-Mart. You could ease into this by doing your own custom mixing, say half fruit loops, and half something else, for a while. I do a version of this for myself, sometimes. I use fruit loops or similar as a topping on some of the more bland cereals, to give it a little zing, especially if I’m out of fruit to add.
September 27th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
The sugar, and especially high fructose corn syrup, is spiking much more real diabetes and all the bad health that goes with it. On the one hand the big food corporations are pushing HFCS for kids and then, on the no-sugar products, aspartame, a known neurotoxin made from the waste product of the E Coli bacteria. Both set us up for ill health so Big Pharma can market their drugs, most all of which have commercials that spend most of their time warning of dangerous side effects.
Educate yourself in good natural health, nutrition, exercise and manage your own healthcare!!
September 27th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Sounds like the little ones version of drinking a beer after giving blood. Ah, the trials and tribulations of raising kids. Thank God I already had my turn in the barrel. In any case, you love ’em up cause they are worth it, even when they scare hell out of you.
September 27th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
BTW, dehydration is one of the number one problems with anyone throwing up. Keeping something like Pediasure or similar is a good idea for when the kids have a bout of the upchucks. Helps replace the vital fluids lost.
September 27th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Your doctor is either an idiot or is more concerned with lawsuit prevention than the actual practice of medicine. Of course all that high-sugar food is going to spike his blood sugar through the roof, especially if he’s dehydrated.
The most sensible course would have been to send you home with a glucometer, instructions on how to watch him and what to watch for, and strict orders for nothing but real food and maybe for a follow-up visit. A fasting glucose test can be done by you, at home, very easily. The hundreds of dollars of tests and referral to a specialist was completely unnecessary in the face of the likeliest explanation, and a simpler solution that would have still taken into account the possibility of diabetes would have been appropriate.
It’s actually a good example of why health care is so expensive in this country – it’s an effect of insurance companies controlling how doctors practice medicine, rather than facts and sound judgment controlling it.
September 27th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Good to hear about the lack of diabetes.
September 27th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
+1 with Olds98.
September 27th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
…..”because I felt sorry for him”
There’s the problem right there.
There’s a reason you’re the grown-up, mmmkay?
September 27th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
To play devil’s advocate, there’s good reason soda is given to settle stomachs- simple sugars go straight to the bloodstream and don’t disturb tender stomachs with challenging digestive processes. The timing of the test was unfortunate, but the problem would have resolved itself shortly and it beat the lasagna in terms of being more likely to stay where it was.
I mean, Gatorade would have been better than Froot Loops to address that hydration issue at the same time as being simple and unchallenging energy, but it ain’t like you gave the kid poison.
September 27th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Simply don’t have the sugary crap in he house at all. We didn’t and didn’t give it a second thought. We knew what would be in the pantry and that wasn’t something full of sugar so we didn’t crave sugar. I turned out 6’2″ 215lbs of muscle at high school graduation. Don’t give a kid the option and they will forget about it. Kind of like gun around kids. If they know you will beat their butt for even touching “their” .22 then they will ask and no one will have the chance of getting “accidentally” shot. Kids now a days get away with so much more than I did at their age. Teach a kid discipline early will save a lot of BS when they are a teen.
September 27th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Sprite or 7-up is fine for kids with a touchy stomach. Gatorade is better as it hydrates instead of just sugaring.
Froot Loops? Are you nuts? Dry toast or saltine crackers, that’s it until they can hold food down. Didn’t your Momma teach you nothing???
September 27th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Forgot to add – there is an epidemic of diabetes amongst 10-12 year olds, and I think we all know why.
September 27th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
No milk!!!!!
September 27th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
You’ll just have to harden your heart, Uncle, and make him eat healthy wholesome food, whether he likes it or not. My Mom had no problem doing that to me. Presumably yer kid is neurotypical, so the standard parentdo should work.
September 28th, 2010 at 5:28 am
Nice to see it didn’t take long for the “HFCS is the devil!” hysterics to start.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Happy to hear he’s OK. I hear they are renaming high-fructose corn syrup, too, because of its bad rap.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Heh, mine’s gotten to the age he’ll eat anything that’s available, limited only by quantity on hand. Sunday I roasted a duck. XYL had a slice of breast, I had a leg quarter, and he had… the rest. I managed to scavenge enough off the corpse for a kind of sad sandwich.
Another part of the reason you see so much HFCS in soft drinks is our benificent leaders have put such limits on the import of real sugar that the big manufacturers can’t get enough to satisfy their demand, so they use what they have to. I’m not convinced yet whether the stuff is as evil as all that, but I’m glad to see the “throwback” versions and mexican coke now.
Good to hear he’s not facing diabetes; I’ve been dealing with sugar problems and it’s not so fun.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Since Aspartame was mentioned, I’ll add some info.
It isn’t allowed in some 1st world countries, like Canada.
Due to lack of cleaning practices, you will find it contaminating other foods, if the company makes any sugar-free versions.
If your feet and/or hands look like they have chicken pox or athletes foot, this may actually be an allergic reaction to Aspartame. If a corticosteroid cream alleviates the skin problem, but nothing else does, this could be the cause.
I’ve had to stop using Sweet n Low, since they now make their own version of Aspartame, and package it on the same equipment.
September 28th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Our first child started tossing his formula late Friday night. By Saturday at 8pm he was so dehydrated as to be lethargic. We took him to the student infirmary at Emory University, where the doctor worked him up and suggested we feed him while he watched, as the kid looked pretty much OK to him.
5 minutes after a bottle of formula, the doc picked him up and got his scrubs covered from neckline to ankles with Enfamil. At which point the doc calmly agreed the kid had a problem. And left to change scrubs.
Turned out the formula we started using Friday was different from his normal formula, just the same color cans. The change to a richer liquid soy diet upset his widdle tummy. We got the right cans, and he was right as rain the next day.
My wife, now a pediatrician for some 20 years, can dodge projectile vomiting, sneezes, and snotty kisses better than an NFL running back finding a hole in a defensive line.