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How do I know if my child has diabetes?

How do I know if my child has diabetes?

Edited by: TOP DOCTORS® at 10/10/2023

Approximately 76,000 new cases of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus are diagnosed annually in children under the age of 15 worldwide. Each year in Mexico, 1 to 5 new cases are diagnosed per 100,000 children under the age of 14. DM1 occurs at any age, but most often develops in children and young adults, with a peak between 2 and 5 years, and again during puberty. In the following article we discover how diabetes mellitus affects.

Mellitus diabetes

Diabetes mellitus and typology

Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by chronic hyperglycemia, that is to say by a high content of blood glucose. The consequences that this has on the body are alterations in the metabolism of sugars, fats and proteins, which occurs due to an absolute deficiency in insulin secretion, decrease in its biological effect or both. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that is responsible for lowering blood sugar levels and carrying it to all the cells of our body to use as an energy source.

Depending on the cause, diabetes can be classified into type 1 (DM1) or type 2 (DM2). Type 1 diabetes is the most frequent in childhood, appears by the destruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, presenting an absolute deficiency of this hormone. On the other hand, type 2 diabetes (DM2) occurs as resistance to insulin with relative deficiency, being one of the diseases with the greatest association to obesity. Other less frequent causes include genetic disorders, pancreatitis, during pregnancy, and in drug efficacy.

Symptoms of diabetes mellitus

Symptoms in type 1 diabetes (DM1) appear quickly, children begin to drink a lot of water (polydipsia), constant urge to urinate (polyuria), even can wet the bed at night even though they have stopped doing so ( enuresis), are very hungry (polyphagia) although they lose weight and present a lot of tiredness, pain and muscular weakness. In severe cases they may present very intense abdominal pain, agitated breathing and sweet-smelling breath (ketoacidosis).

Symptoms in type 2 diabetes (DM2) appear gradually and generally associated with overweight or obesity. In these cases there is resistance to insulin, and may develop dark coloration of the skin in areas such as the back of the neck, armpits and English ( acanthosis nigricans ). The symptoms are the same as in DM1, although DM2 may go unnoticed for years and be diagnosed once complications appear in the eyes, kidneys, blood vessels or nerves.

Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism in Miguel Hidalgo