Ethan's Scare with Ketotic Hypoglycemia

Ethan gave us a terrible scare today. He woke up acting really oddly (slurred speech, shaking, and vomiting). I called our pediatrician, and they thought it might be severe flu. He started being less responsive and unable to focus his eyes on us, so we rushed him to our pediatrician's office. Our doctor called paramedics to take him by ambulance to the hospital because Ethan was completely unresponsive and limp when we arrived at the office. The paramedics tested his blood sugar immediately upon arriving to evaluate Ethan's status and found that it was 21 (20=comatose). I have never been so terrified in my life. I rode in the front of the ambulance and knew from looking back at the paramedics that they were unable to get an IV started en route to the hospital. They tried giving him a shot of glucagon (which is supposed to release any glucose stores in the body), but his stores were already depleted so the shot only caused his blood sugar to go up to 29. By the time we arrived at the ER, it was back down to 23. As soon as we got to the ER there were 4 nurses each working on one of his arms or legs trying to get an IV started as soon as possible. Thankfully it only took a few minutes before they were able to give him a bolus of IV dextrose via an IV in his right arm. He slowly started coming around and responding after receiving IV dextrose. He was admitted with an overnight stay and had many tests run, but the only explanation the staff could provide was a severe episode of ketotic hypoglycemia. The pediatric endocrinologist told us that toddlers with a slender build are susceptible to low blood sugar in general, especially after a fast such as overnight or during an illness. If their blood sugar becomes dangerously low, they display neurological symtoms (because the brain is deprived of its fuel source), can become comatose, and it can be fatal if prolonged. In Ethan's case, his blood sugar was so low that it was really dangerous. We have to watch very carefully what he eats and when now and must give him a complex carbohydrate snack just before bed to keep his blood sugar up overnight. It was incredibly scary and came entirely out of the blue, but we are so thankful that God was protecting him and that he bounced back to his usual active self. We are also thankful that this is a propensity that he will outgrow at least by the age of 7 according to the endocrinologist.