DIABETES IN CHILDREN: URINE TESTS
A lot of useful information about the health of a child can be gained by testing for certain substances in urine. It may be helpful for you to test for glucose in the urine at times, and it is certainly important that you are able to test for ketones during illness.
Urine test for glucose
Before blood tests became generally accepted as the best method for monitoring day to day control of diabetes, urine tests were used to check the level of sugar in urine as a rough guide to the blood glucose levels.
The basis of this test was that when blood glucose values rose over approximately 10 mmol/1, glucose overflows into the urine where it can be detected. The higher the blood glucose values and the longer the period that they were too high, the more glucose is passed in the urine. Thus a rough estimate of control was based on a concentration of sugar in urine.
Clearly this test was very helpful but not really reliable. It was found that sometimes the blood test and the urine test didn’t agree. A negative urine test moreover tells you that the blood glucose value is not too high but it doesn’t tell you whether it is too low.
Some children find blood tests too painful and prefer urine tests. Sometimes parents find that a urine test is helpful as an extra check before bed to ensure that the blood glucose is high as a reassurance that a hypo is not likely to develop. Sometimes it is useful to have a urine test as a stand-by if the blood glucose meter breaks down. Some physicians find urine glucose tests provide helpful additional information to assess control.
For all these reasons it may be helpful to know about urine tests for glucose, though it is quite possible you won’t use them.
*33/54/5*
