Preventive treatment of neonatal hypoglycaemia in infants of insulin dependent diabetic mothers.

Neonatal hypoglycaemia (blood glucose smaller than 20 mg/100 ml) occurred in the first 6 hours of life in 25 of 34 infants born to diabetic mothers receiving insulin. Despite severe hypoglycaemia (blood glucose smaller than 10 mg/100 ml) in 17, clinical features of hypoglycaemia were absent in all but 2. Hypoglycaemia was not related either to the level of plasma insulin in cord blood, determined as nonextracted immunoreactive insulin, or to the degree of control of maternal blood glucose during pregnancy. The frequent occurrence of severe neonatal hypoglycaemia in the infants born to diabetic mothers receiving insulin appears to be due rather to failure to maintain basal glucose homoeostasis after birth than to hyperinsulinism.