Similar with a hypo , your child will experience having high blood glucose levels, this is known as hyperglycaemia, or a ‘hyper’ for short. This occurs when a person’s blood glucose levels are too high – usually above 7mmol/l before a meal and above 8.5mmol/l two hours after a meal.

Potential reasons for why this may happen, could be:

  • a missed an insulin dose
  • eating too much carbohydrate, without taking extra insulin
  • stress
  • unwell from an infection
  • over-treated a hypo.

High blood glucose does not necessarily put the person with diabetes in immediate danger, unlike a hypo. However, prolonged high blood glucose levels can cause serious complications . Therefore it’s important to minimise this as much as possible. It can also make you feel unwell if you are hyper for too long.

Having very high blood glucose levels can result in DKA. This is serious and will need immediate treatment.

Recognise the symptoms of a hyper

Symptoms are different for everyone (and some people may not get any at all), but they may include:

  • passing more urine than normal, especially at night
  • being very thirsty
  • headaches
  • tiredness and lethargy.

How to manage a hyper

Treatment will depend on what caused the hyper. If they are a regular occurrence, talk to your child’s diabetes healthcare team. If blood glucose level is high for a short time, emergency treatment won’t be necessary. But if it stays high then:

  • drink water or sugar-free drinks
  • monitor blood glucose levels with regular checks
  • inject additional insulin if instructed by a physician
  • stay as active as possible.

High blood glucose can be reduced by regularly testing your blood glucose and matching insulin to food intake, exercise and all the other factors, as closely as possible.

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