The hypoglycemia is not constant, but appears when the child cannot eat because of illness. The typical story is that of a child who is sick, perhaps with vomiting and diarrhea, who eats poorly the night before, and is difficult to arouse from sleep the next morning. The child may have a seizure or become comatose by mid-morning. Your child's physician should definitely be consulted. During times of illness, parents test the child's urine for the presence of ketones with a simple dipstick test.
Ketones appear in the urine several hours before hypoglycemia develops.
If ketones appear, high carbohydrate drinks such as juices and sodas should be offered to the child. If these cannot be tolerated, the child may be given a short course of steroids or admitted to the hospital for intravenous glucose administration. Luckily, ketotic hypoglycemia is usually outgrown by 8-9 years of age.