Diabetic Seizures in Children

Diabetic seizures in children occur when the child's blood sugar levels are either too high or too low, or as a result of other metabolic disturbances associated with uncontrolled diabetes.

Function

• Hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, occurs in children with diabetes because insulin (the hormone that controls sugar metabolism) is either defective or absent. The high glucose level can create dysfunction in the brain's cells, resulting in a seizure.

Effects

• Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, can also cause seizures. This results if a child takes too much glucose-controlling medicine, like insulin, or if he skips meals while on diabetes treatment.

Types

• Other electrolyte disturbances can cause seizures in diabetic children. High or low blood sodium can cause seizures if the levels are corrected too aggressively by health care providers. Children in diabetic ketoacidosis, a process in which the body starts breaking down muscle in the absence of the insulin needed to use glucose, can present with seizure due to the ketones (byproducts of muscle breakdown) in the bloodstream.

Identification

• Blood sugar level can be measured using an accu-check. These machines need a drop of blood to determine the amount of sugar in the body. it is important to measure this when a child is having a diabetic seizure in order to institute appropriate treatment.

Prevention/Solution

• When a child is having a diabetic seizure, it is important to ascertain if the child has a patent airway, if she is breathing and if she has a pulse. After this is established, the seizure can be stopped with an anti-epileptic drug like lorazepam. Appropriate correction of blood glucose is important to prevent a recurrence of the seizure.