The significance of hypoglycaemia in the newborn infant of the diabetic woman

Abstract

Confirmatory evidence is offered that the blood sugar level falls more profoundly and more rapidly in the infant of the diabetic mother than in the offspring of the normal woman. It is shown that there is no relationship between the development of a morbid neonatal course and the blood sugar level at the time or the extent and rapidity of the fall. It is shown also that there is no relationship between the degree of hypoglycaemia or the gradient of the change in levels and abnormal incidents later in the first two weeks of life. It is probable that there is no relationship between the blood sugar changes and subnormal intelligence in later childhood. The administration of glucose may be dangerous and at the least it may serve to postpone the establishment of the correct diagnosis in abnormal infants.