BoooBooo : Diabetes In Children

Diabetes also scientifically known as Diabetes Mellitus is now a common occurrence in children. There are many reasons why diabetes in children is rising rapidly. Very often exposing children to a certain virus such as the Coxsackie R virus or even certain environmental causes can trigger a diabetic condition. The most vulnerable period for children to get diabetes is around early primary school years or initial years of secondary school.

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes
There are two predominant varieties of diabetes. While earlier, Type 2 used to be seen primarily in adults, these days it is increasingly being found in children as well. The Type 1 diabetes is also called Diabetes Mellitus – IDDM and is characterized by very low levels of insulin. In such cases patients may be needed to manually inject insulin into their bodies. In the Type 2 variety of diabetes the patient’s body becomes immune to the effects of insulin. It can also trigger when the child’s pancreas are not able to product adequate levels of insulin.

What are the symptoms?
Diabetes in children is characterized by certain specific symptoms. The need to drink water more often, insufficient immunity to common infections, blurred vision, any wounds which do not heal fast enough, numb sensations in the hands and feet, frequent urge to urinate, too much hunger for food, rapid weight losses, irritable behavior and many more.

The problem with the symptoms of juvenile diabetes patients face is that these symptoms are easily considered as part of growing up years. Hence parents tend to take these quite lightly. Moreover, each of these symptoms alternates. So today, the child maybe facing extreme hunger, tomorrow it could be irritability and the next time it could even be blurring of vision. Since there is no particular pattern or consistency, detecting if it is diabetes will be very difficult for a parent. However close watch and careful observation is a must.

Initial and serious symptoms
There are certain symptoms, which usually occur on a sporadic basis in children with diabetes. These occur early on and are symptoms juvenile diabetes patients will never acknowledge openly. This includes excessive thirst, hunger, urination and blurred vision. The more serious forms of symptoms would include vomiting and stomach aches, deep and heavy breathing, acetone like smell in the mouth and in extreme cases even coma.

Sedentary lifestyles
The culprit for the rising rate of diabetes in children seems to be a relatively inactive lifestyle coupled with junk food. Also the tendency to sit in front of the computer for long hours, watch TV for long durations, as well as unhealthy eating habits – are all contributors to this sad phenomenon.

What you can do
If you happen to detect any one of the symptoms juvenile diabetes patients are known to experience, in your child, then immediately get your child tested. The testing procedure is very easy and does not hurt. In fact in the case of diabetes, it is better to get your child tested as early as possible – before the disease reaches its full potential. Although Type 2 diabetes is incurable, children can control this disease through proper diet and adequate exercise. Once the disease reaches more serious proportions, then injections of insulin and medication may be needed to control diabetes.

How to administer injections
Children with diabetes have to start undergoing insulin injections from a very young age. Sometimes, even children as young as 5 years are known to have injected themselves successfully. As compared to the traditional syringe injector, the pen injector is known to be more convenient to use.

The injection needs to be rotated between legs, abdomen and arms to avoid fat build up in these areas. In addition to the child knowing how to administer injections, any other member of the family also needs to be trained in the method adequately.

They also should know things like how to detect dipping blood sugar levels in the body as well as treatment methods with carbohydrates that are easily absorbed. Foods like honey, glucose tablets and even soft sweets can help in raising carbohydrate levels in the body of the child. You need to monitor blood sugar levels 4 times in a day by pricking the finger tip and extracting a blood sample.