Increasing Incidence of Juvenile Diabetes

Each year more than 15,000 children and young adults are diagnosed with diabetes in the United States. That's more than 40 adolescents each day, according to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.

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Does your child urine frequently? Does he have a wound that takes a long time to heal? Does he feel extreme weakness or fatigue and unexplained weight loss? It’s probable that your child has juvenile diabetes.

It’s all natural for little children to crave for chocolate bars, cotton candies, cakes and ice cream. It’s their joy aside from playing games. However, once they acquire the disease, they can no longer give in to their craving.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder, which causes high glucose level in the blood. This is due to deficient amount of insulin in the pancreas. If untreated, high glucose level in the blood can cause acidosis or diabetic coma and death. It also causes irritability or behavioral changes in children.

Many say that kids in this generation are susceptible to acquire the disease because of their sedentary lifestyle. Children today consume most of their time with computer games and eating unhealthy food, which makes them obese. However, clinical studies point at auto-immune disorder as the culprit for diabetes incidence in children and not directly obesity or the overeating of sweets. It means that the body’s own anti-bodies destroy its pancreas, which causes the organ’s inability to create insulin.

Early detection is still crucial in the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes among children. Treatment includes insulin shots twice a day and a regulated diet, which is 1,000 calories per day. Doctors do not totally prohibit sweets to children with diabetes, as long as they constantly monitor their blood sugar level and calorie intake. 

According to statistics, 1 out of every 5 adult Filipinos has diabetes and about 3 out of 5 are likely to develop the disease if they don’t change their lifestyle. Among children, statistics are scarce but according to a US study, one in every seven thousand children in America has insulin-dependent diabetes.

If your child shows any indication that he has the disease like, frequent urination, extreme thirst or hunger, extreme fatigue, unexplained weight loss, chronic wounds, numbness in the hands or feet or blurred vision, it would be best to seek medical attention immediately.