How Is Diabetes Diagnosed in Children?

There is so much to worry about when raising a child these days. You try to remember everything you read in the parenting magazines and see in the nightly news parenting pieces, but it can become overwhelming. Now ,you think your child is having symptoms common in diabetes, and you remember that you have a couple different relatives diagnosed with some sort of diabetes.

Diabetes is a serious disease, especially in children. Though the symptoms seem to appear out of nowhere, the disease has actually been advancing in your child for a much longer time. You want to know if your child is at risk of developing diabetes. You need know if there is anything you can do to prevent diabetes in your child. You should be aware of what symptoms to watch for and how to have your child diagnosed once you suspect your child has diabetes.

Significance

• The American Diabetes Association defines diabetes as "a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin." Your child's pancreas, which is responsible for producing insulin, is no longer functioning properly. Therefore, sugars and starches are not being properly converted into the energy your child needs in her everyday life. No one knows the exact cause of diabetes. Genetics is definitely a contributor, but your child's environment, diet and activities also figure into whether she will be one of the millions diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetes affects 23.6 million people (children and adults), according to the ADA. This number continues to grow with no cure in sight.

Types

• The two types of diabetes that effect children are known as Type 1 (formerly known as juvenile diabetes) and Type 2 diabetes (formerly known as adult onset diabetes). Type 1 diabetes commonly metabolizes in children and young adults. For a number of reasons, one being genetics, the pancreas stops producing insulin. Type 2 diabetes historically had only been diagnosed in adults, usually adults over 45. However, with obesity--especially childhood obesity--becoming an epidemic, Type 2 diabetes is being found in children and young adults in alarming numbers. In Type 2, the body becomes resistant to insulin. In an effort to produce enough insulin to make up for this, the pancreas becomes overwhelmed and cannot produce enough insulin.

Symptoms

• Before you take your child to a doctor to be diagnosed you have probably noticed some of these classic symptoms of Type 1 diabetes, as listed by ChildrenWithDiabetes.com: "excessive thirst, excessive urination, excessive hunger, weight loss, fatigue, blurred vision, high blood sugar level, sugar and ketones in the urine, Kussmaul breathing (rapid, deep, and labored breathing of people who have ketoacidosis or who are in a diabetic coma), vaginal yeast infections in girls (even infants and toddlers)."

  With Type 2 diabetes, your child is more likely to be obese and to have experienced no weight loss, no unusual thirst and no keotones in her urine. She will have a family history of diabetes and, according to ChildrenWithDiabetes.com, "About 90% of children with type 2 have dark shiny patches on the skin (acanthosis nigricans), which are most often found between the fingers and between the toes and on the back of the neck ("dirty neck") and in axillary creases."

  If you suspect your child has diabetes, get her to a doctor as soon as possible for diagnosis. It is very dangerous to leave diabetes untreated.

Diagnosis

• There are three tests that doctors use to diagnosis diabetes. The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse lists these as a fasting plasma glucose test (FPG), an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and a random or casual plasma glucose test. All three measure your blood glucose levels--how much sugar is in your blood--because if your pancreas is not producing insulin as it should, you will have more sugar in your blood than is normal.

  The FPG test, done after an eight hour fast, "is the preferred test for diagnosing diabetes because of its convenience and low cost. However, it will miss some diabetes or pre-diabetes that can be found with the OGTT. The FPG test is most reliable when done in the morning," according to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse.

  The OGTT is more accurate, but it requires an eight hour fast as well as drinking a glucose drink two hours before the test. The casual plasma glucose test can be done anytime, but is the least accurate of the three.

  If your child is at risk for Type 2 diabetes, ChildrenWithDiabetes.com recommends you have your child tested every two years using the FPG test.

Prevention/Solution

• Type 1 diabetes has no known prevention. It is genetically pre-determined and then triggered by environmental incidences. What you can do as a parent is be aware of the classic symptoms and get your child to the doctor as soon as possible if she develops these symptoms.

  Type 2 diabetes can be prevented with a healthy diet and exercise. There is still some genetic disposition to consider. However, if this family history of diabetes exists, it's all the more reason to make sure your child eats a healthy diet low in sugar and simple carbohydrates as well as getting plenty of exercise.

  MedicalNewsToday.com says of diabetes care in children, "Early diagnosis of diabetes is therefore vital in children and adolescents to establish adequate control of the disease at an early stage."