Diabetes Info

Diabetes in Children

November 20th, 2007 | by admin |

The incidence of Diabetes (common name Diabetes Mellitus) in little children is increasing at an alarming rate. Types of viruses like Coxsackie R or certain environmental factors can actually trigger a diabetic attack in children. Susceptibility to the disease is greatest during the initial primary schooling years or even during secondary schooling.  

Symptoms that help detect diabetes in your child

If your child complains of being thirsty most of the time, if there is a blurring in his or her vision or if there is numbness in the limbs, it could all indicate Diabetes. Many times decreased immunity levels in the child can lead to an increase in infections. Often wounds present on the body may take longer time to heal. Juvenile diabetes is often ignored simply because of the diversity of symptoms present and the commonality of these symptoms across children of all age groups and at varying levels of good health.  Very often these symptoms manifest themselves in disparate sets often leaving no set pattern to help in easy diagnosis. One day the symptom could be about feeling too hungry, the other day it could be blurred visions. The total lack of pattern and the sudden symptoms that appear all result in a failure to effectively diagnose this disease.  

Junk food and obesity – the biggest culprits

Fast food, lack of exercise and constant television viewing has all resulted in an increasing instance of diabetes in small children. The absence of healthy foods like green vegetables and salads or fruits along with the increased intake of canned food has resulted in increasing sugar levels in the body. It is estimated that more than 90% of children with diabetes aged less than 16 suffer from Type 1 diabetes.  

Injecting the insulin

As sad as it may sound, many children have to cope with daily injections to regularize insulin levels in the body. The pen injector is a popular choice these days and to avoid fatty deposits in the body the injection is usually rotated around fatty areas of the body. Blood sugar levels need to be monitored as many as four times daily to detect dipping or increasing sugar levels in the child’s body. With a pin prick on the tip of the finger the blood is extracted and with kind of specialized gadgets available these days, sugar levels can be monitored quite easily. Diabetes can be a painful and tedious disease to live with, especially for a child, but there are methods to curtail the progress of the disease so the child can live a healthy normal life.