The nurse discovers on talking with the parents of a child that the child is waking at night to drink. Once when denied water, the child drank out of the toilet and another time the child drank from a puddle. The nurse most suspects and further assesses this child for:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The child's excessive thirst and drinking behavior, including drinking from unusual sources like a toilet or puddle, suggest a condition characterized by extreme thirst and frequent urination. This is more indicative of diabetes insipidus, a condition caused by a lack of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) or a resistance to it, leading to the inability to concentrate urine and resulting in excessive urine output and compensatory thirst. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus can also cause thirst and frequent urination, but the extreme behavior described is more typical of diabetes insipidus. Diabetic ketoacidosis is a serious condition that results from untreated or poorly managed diabetes mellitus, characterized by high blood sugar and ketones, and does not directly explain the extreme thirst and drinking behavior.

The Nurse Discovers on Talking with the Parents of a Child