How to Care for Your Child with Diabetes: Hyperglycemia

This leaflet will provide you with information about hyperglycemia causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and home care advice.

What is a Hyperglycemia?

Hyperglycemia is when the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood is too high, above your child’s target as decided by your doctor.

It is a common problem for children with diabetes. It can affect children with Type 1 diabetes and as well as children with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Symptoms of Hyperglycemia develop slowly over several hours or days.

A variety of things can cause Hyperglycemia in children with diabetes, including

Insulin
- Too little insulin or other blood-glucose-lowering medicines
- Problems with Insulin pump or infusion set
Food
- Eating too many carbohydrates and not covering by insulin
Other causes:
- Low physical activity
- Illness, infection and injury
- Severe physical or emotional stress

How is Hyperglycemia treated at home?

To treat your child’s hyperglycemia at home, make sure to:

Check blood glucose level
Check blood for ketones if blood glucose is greater than 250 mg/dL (> 14mmol/L)
Your child may need an insulin correction dose; calculate the insulin correction dose as in your plan management by your diabetes team
Recheck blood glucose every 2 hours to be sure the blood glucose is decreasing to your target range
Encourage your child to drink plenty of water or non-sugar-containing drinks as this will help wash away ketones
Follow your sick days management- if your child is unwell (having infection)
If your child is on Insulin pump therapy- follow the advice on how to treat Hyperglycemia with moderate or large ketones in the blood

If your child has high blood glucose levels and experiences the following symptoms:

These symptoms could be a sign of Diabetic Ketoacidosis, which is a serious complication of hyperglycaemia