When you look at a person with diabetes, you'd never know it, they look healthy on the outside.
But it's what you don't see that is so bad.
The disease elevates the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. As blood sugars remain high, over time, complications such as blindness, kidney failure, amputations, heart disease, and severe nerve damage can occur.
The quality of your child's life may depend on being able to recognize the symptoms of diabetes in children.
Diabetes in children has reached almost epidemic proportions. The incidence of this chronic and sometimes deadly disease is predicted to continue to rise.
Unfortunately for parents, sometimes it can be hard to identify the symptoms of diabetes in children. Read the list below and you'll understand why often symptoms of diabetes aren't recognized early.
When they are, doctors can help immediately with treatment and help you to maintain and control the diabetes.
Symptoms of diabetes in children and adults are:
• Frequent thirst – You may just be thinking your child drinks a lot.
• Frequent infections – Many consider this just a part of childhood.
• Blurred Vision – Your child may not tell you as the blurred vision can come and go. It's not always constant.
• Cuts/bruises that are slow to heal – It's easy to think the injury was just a “bad one” and it's taking longer to heal.
• Tingling/numbness in hands or feet – Again you child may not notice or tell you about it as it's not usually constant.
• Frequent urination – Many just think it comes from drinking more.
• Extreme hunger – Often parents think their child is going through a “growth spurt” and just requires more food.
• Unusual weight loss – This symptom does normally make parents concerned. If the child has bee overweight, parents sometimes think …..Great, the weight is finally coming off.
• Irritability - Can often be labeled as parent/child confrontations. Also many parents of teens just think it's a normal part of the teenage years.
You won't see all of this at once. You will notice one of them, then a month or two latter something else...
What To Do If You See Symptoms Of Diabetes In Children
Get your child tested for diabetes IMMEDIATELY. Don't wait. The test is simple and painless. The longer you wait the more difficult the disease can be to control.
These symptoms may not even be noticed until the disease in is full force. It's important to learn to recognize these symptoms. With early detection children with type 2 diabetes can learn to control the disease with diet and exercise.
Left untreated the symptoms of diabetes in children results in more defined and difficult treatment. Medications and insulin must often be used to control diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that should not be taken lightly.
There are two types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body no longer produces insulin.
Type 2, the most common type of diabetes occurs when the body develops a resistance to insulin, or does not produce enough insulin. Type 2 diabetes, once labeled adult onset diabetes, has become more and more prevalent in children.
Research has documented two primary factors contributing to the rise in type 2 diabetes in children. The factors are: 1) children today are more inactive, and 2) unhealthy diets in children. Today's lifestyle of fast-food meals, TV, computers, and hand-held games has put many at risk of developing symptoms of diabetes in children