Ketotic hypoglycemia

What is it, how it affects my child

When my 6 year old was born he was healthy like any other child.  It was his twin sister who was under weight, smaller, weaker etc but when he reached 6 months old it all went down hill.
His twin sister took over and became the strongest and healthiest and heaviest and he just plummited

Gastric bugs hit our family hard, we find it very difficult to shift them, mostly because we're all on top of each other and heavily involved in caring roles of our 3 autistic children, even my 18 and 9 year old are

 pre extension (house adaptation) they all shared rooms and where even more on top of each other
This was hugely problematic and promoted gastric to spread more rapidly
And stick around for longer

When my little boy vomits or has a very high temperature he looses sugars in his blood, this then causes his keytones to rise and sugars to drop further pushing him into a hypoglycemic state, high temperature just burns the sugars away and makes him plummit faster

It was a full two years actually more than that before he was diagnosed with this, it was always a question mark or possible DX but now it's official

He may or may not grow out of it, we're praying he does as it's very scary

What happens
He's happy healthy and full of energy then wham, he's flat and passing out
He goes very sleepy, this is not good
Then he'll vomit and we are straight in the car or ambulance to hospital

He needs glucose drips, bolas drips and and sugar drinks, dexterous gel etc if were lucky he may get out a few hours later but mostly its over night and becoming rare now we are there more than one night

We have a glucose monitor at home and a protocol, it used to be one vomit then hospital now since he's older and we have found ways to treat it better its 3 vomits and sugars at 3 then hospital but if we can smell the keytones rising (they are potent) then its straight to hospital

His diet has to be carb heavy, lots of bread and high sugar drinks and fruits
He is very skinny tho and a really bad eater, typical autism diet fads so he makes carb loading hard, he is also extremely hyperactive as has ADHD so burns what he eats almost straight away
This leads to 3 am wake ups with sugar crashes and his body needs sugar and carbs straight away to avoid a hypo episode

This paired with autism and adhd makes life harder and nerve wrecking at times
And not to mention the complication of one parent being in hospital with one parent left solo parenting the others
Its really hard going and then let's not forget sleep deprivation added to all of that

Its a nasty illness that leaves you scared out of your mind, I've seen my son hooked up to a lot of monitors in a really bad dangerous state before my very eyes and the fear that you didn't make the hospital on time
The hospital is 1hr and 15 minutes drive away IN GOOD WEATHER

That's why we ask people to avoid us like the plague if they or their kids have gastric bugs, we campaign to ask parents to stop sending their children to schools sick, that people do not go to work and be out in the public sick
That they understand the bug and follow the guidelines for recovery

Your little gastric bug could kill someone who's immunes system is compromised
And no that's not a dramatic statement its a true statement