Diabetes in children do not occur as much as in adults but healthcare statistics still show a growing trend over the last 10 years or so and partly attributed this to obesity.. In the US alone, type 2 diabetes in children specifically type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents are showing an increase too. This type occurs in teens when the body fails to produce sufficient insulin or the cells do not acknowledge this insulin.
Some Information About Type 1 Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes
This type 1 refers to the pancreas not functioning normally and therefore not producing insulin which is required by the body cells to breakdown the blood glucose. As a result the person who suffers from it has to inject insulin manually doing so on a regular basis.
Type 2 diabetes on the other hand refers to the body’s resistance to insulin that has been produced. The body simply resists this insulin which has been produced normally. Doctors usually termed it “insulin resistance”. There are insulin supplements for this medical condition and treatment is done by having a strict diet and regular exercise.
What causes Juvenile Diabetes?
Food: One of the reasons for the cause of diabetes for kids is obesity due to too much rich food being readily available, although it is not the only reason. This is aggravated by a total lack of exercise or not having a good diet at home, like vegetables and fruits that growing up kids need. In short most of today’s kids are eating all sorts of junk food.
Hereditary: Anyone with a family history of members with diabetes should be careful. Many health studies have been done to determine the cause of diabetes and the results always proved that heredity is one of the main causes of kids with diabetes. So this means that if both the child’s parents suffer from type 2 diabetes, this disease passes on to the child. However for type 1 diabetes, infections are less severe and the child faces a lesser than 20% risk of getting from the family.
For teenage identical twins in the family, when one twin is a confirmed type 2 diabetic, then the other twin faces about 100% chance of getting it too. However for type 1 the percentage falls to about 50% chance of the second twin contracting this disease.
Although many clinical researches have been done over the last few years, the primary cause of diabetes mellitus is still not fully understood by scientists.Apart from genetic reasons, other causes seem to be pointing to environmental factors helping to turn this medical condition into a more chronic condition for sufferers.
Diabetes Health Studies have shown that there is an alarming increase in diabetic teenage cases in recent years. More than 90% of children in the study groups who are of age 16 years suffer from type 1 diabetes.Type 2 cases although much lesser are slowing increasing and more children have been diagnosed with this disease. The increase is therefore alarming because they were not that significant in the early years.
Start Diabetes in Children Prevention Today
Now that you know some of the diabetes symptoms in children, you can play a very active role in helping your children manage the disease or their sugar levels
to avoid complications. Here are some quick tips:
- supervise snacks consumption
- avoid buying junk food
- don’t patronize fast food chains
- learn to cook good simple yet healthy meals with less sugar
- have your kids do a sports/physical activity and join them too
- no sodas
- give your kids pack lunches for school
Why Do Children with Diabetes Live Longer?
Call it a consolation or God’s will in return for these children’s trauma in the experience, treatment and the constant medication they are subjected to in managing their blood glucose levels and their overall health condition. Diabetic children have been known to live longer than adult diabetics possibly because they are aware their condition much earlier. Monitoring a healthy lifestype, ensuring good fitness and learning to manage blood sugar, taking insulin injections to fight the disease all become much easier. Parents also would play a big part too and would help to look out for diabetes symptoms in their children as well as monitor signs of low blood glucose levels. They would also make sure they get regular checkup in the prevention of kidney and eye problems commonly associated with diabetes symptoms.
