Easy tips to manage Diabetes in children. Dr. V. Mohan (Chairman & Chief of Diabetology, Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Chennai) explains that usually children are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and require insulin for life. However, Type 2 diabetes has also started to occur in children owing to strong family history, or obesity because of lifestyle changes. For Type 2 diabetes the body produces some amount of insulin and the rest can be supplemented with tablets and controlled with exercise.
The third type of diabetes observed is the Monogenic form of diabetes or maturity-onset diabetes. Here, all the former generations of the child, right from their parents to great grandparents have diabetes. However, a proper analysis of family history and the right tests need to be conducted to affirm whether the child also has type 1 diabetes.
Juvenile diabetes is usually well until a few weeks or days before the diagnosis is made. Symptoms include:
By this time the blood sugar is rapidly rising going as high as up to 1000 because parents are unaware that their child has diabetes. To prevent this, screen for diabetes whenever the child goes to check up for any illness to detect diabetes in its asymptomatic stage.
If a child is diagnosed with juvenile-onset type 1 diabetes, then insulin is the only treatment. Here, the insulin has to be split into small doses for three to four injections per day. If the child has juvenile-onset or early-onset type 2 diabetes, then according to the FDA, only Metformin and insulin are prescribed.
If the family has a history of diabetes, the child needs to be kept healthy through exercise and limited consumption of carbohydrates and sweets.
