Diabetes is a common disease that affects people of all ages. Because diabetes is so prevalent, there are many people and places sharing information. While some people’s understanding may be backed by information from their provider or other reputable sources, people can form opinions incorrectly based on hearsay. To clear things up, pediatric diabetes experts from the University of Maryland Medical System share the following information to put to rest any misinformation you may have heard.
Take a few moments to learn about how diabetes affects children, to better prepare to help them grow up to be healthy and strong.
What Is Diabetes?
When you eat, your body breaks food down into energy, such as sugar (glucose), and releases it into the bloodstream. In response, your body then releases insulin, a hormone made by cells in the pancreas, that allows the rest of the body to take the sugar out of the blood, pull it into other areas such as your muscles, and transform it into energy.
When your body doesn’t make or use insulin as it’s supposed to, the sugar stays in your blood, and you will experience high blood glucose. When this elevated blood glucose exceeds a certain level, and/or occurs over an extended period of time, it can be characterized as diabetes. In children, diabetes typically occurs as Type 1 or Type 2.
Type 1 diabetes used to be known as juvenile diabetes, though we now know that adults can get diagnosed with this as well. It happens when the immune system makes antibodies that attack the pancreas and over time destroy the cells that make insulin. Type 1 diabetes is treated with daily insulin injections or an insulin pump.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body becomes resistant to the insulin the pancreas is making. The pancreas tries to make more insulin to keep the blood sugars in control but sometimes falls short. We have many medications to help treat Type 2 diabetes, including medications that target insulin resistance, medications that change pancreatic insulin production and release, medications that affect insulin processing, and sometimes, like in Type 1 diabetes, we use insulin itself.
Type 1 diabetes is currently more common in children than Type 2 diabetes, but pediatricians are seeing an alarming increase in Type 2 diabetes in children. Uncontrolled blood sugars from either type of diabetes can lead to lifelong health problems, including damage to the heart, blood vessels, nervous system, eyes, and kidneys. Early diagnosis and careful management of diabetes are very important to preventing these complications.
Is Your Child at Risk for Diabetes?
Because Type 1 diabetes is most likely to occur at random, it is hard to develop a way to predict who is going to develop Type 1 diabetes in the future. However, with ongoing research to develop medications and techniques to slow down the immune system’s destruction of the pancreas, screening to determine which patients have these antibodies is going to become more and more important. Some studies show that testing for Type 1 diabetes antibodies in patients who have a close family member (parent, sibling, child) with Type 1 diabetes may be helpful.
Risk factors for Type 2 diabetes are a little more predictable, and the most common include family history, falling into a category of excess weight, and concern for elevated blood sugars on a prior screening test. The American Diabetes Association recommends that screening be done in children at/around the start of puberty who are overweight or obese, and have either high blood pressure, high cholesterol or polycystic ovarian syndrome, or a family history of diabetes (gestational or Type 2).
Symptoms of Diabetes in Children
If your child has diabetes, symptoms may not appear for months or years. Symptoms of Type 1 and Type 2 vary, but there are some common symptoms in both types of diabetes.
Symptoms of diabetes you might see in children include:
- Breath that smells fruity
- Changes in vision
- Dry mouth
- Excessive thirst
- Fatigue
- Frequent urination
- Increased appetite
- Irritability
- Slow-healing wounds
- Unexplained weight loss
- Weakness
Tests That Diagnose Diabetes in Children
To diagnose diabetes, your child’s provider will need to order blood tests. Some common blood tests include:
- A1C—This blood test shows your child’s average blood sugar over the past few months. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, normal A1C levels are below 5.7 percent. Your child will be diagnosed with prediabetes if A1C levels are 5.7 to 6.4 percent and with diabetes if A1C levels are 6.5 percent and above.
- Fasting glucose—Fasting glucose is a blood test that measures glucose levels after your child has not had anything to eat or drink for the past eight hours. Normal fasting glucose levels are 99 mg/dL or below, prediabetes levels are 100–125 mg/dL, and diabetes levels are 126 mg/dL and above.
- Random glucose—This test measures glucose levels at any time. Your child has diabetes if the test shows levels of 200 mg/dL or above.
Managing Diabetes in Children with Healthy Living
Regardless of type, diabetes care for children may require treatment with insulin injections, pumps or other diabetes medications. However, children with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes benefit from living healthy lifestyles. You can help your child by encouraging him or her to take the following steps:
- Eat a healthy diet. A healthy diet includes plenty of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, whole grains, and dairy. People with diabetes may need to monitor how many carbohydrates they eat on a daily basis since carbohydrates are converted into sugar in the bloodstream. Your child’s medical provider can help you determine how to incorporate carbohydrates into your child’s diet.
- Get enough physical activity. Children need exercise. Help your child get the recommended at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity every week or a combination of the two. Aerobic activities increase the heart rate and can include many family activities such as walking, cycling, swimming, and even simply playing in the yard.
These lifestyle changes help children prevent or manage diabetes and set them up for a lifetime of healthy living.
Additional Resources
Listen to a Podcast
Diabetes is not just an adult problem. Children can get it, too – both Type 1 and Type 2. How does it affect their growth and development? What are the ways to best manage this disease? In this podcast, diabetes expert Meaghan Moxley, MD, from UM Upper Chesapeake Health, talks about these and many other issues to help kids be as healthy as possible while living with diabetes. Listen below or download the episode.
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Medically reviewed by Meaghan C. Moxley, MD.
