Type I diabetes is a disease you contract as a child. Some children have it so bad that they are born with it. Others may have perfectly normal childhoods up until they are suddenly diagnosed with the disease.
Since you, as a parent, may be researching symptoms on what illness your child currently has, you may be shocked when your pediatrician informs you that your child has diabetes. It can be tricky to spot. Here are some reasons why you may not recognize the symptoms of diabetes in your child until blood sugar testing for children is performed on your child during standard pediatric services and wellness exams.
The Symptoms Do Not All Show up at the Same Time
Probably the scariest thing about Type I diabetes is that all of the iconic symptoms of the disease do not show up at the same time. It is a progressive disease which gradually gets worse and worse over time. Your child could complain of a tummy ache one day, be extremely tired and fatigued three days later, and then bouncing off the walls and fine a few days after that.
After a few weeks, your child could become extremely thirsty and lose a lot of weight in a short time, while simultaneously complaining of feeling hungry. It could be a month or more before all of the classic symptoms of the disease finally appear. By then, the disease is extremely dangerous and life-threatening.
Some of the Symptoms Mimic the Flu
The majority of the classic symptoms for childhood diabetes resemble the flu. Your child presents with symptoms that fit with a stomach bug; a stomachache, fatigue, nausea after eating, etc. After these symptoms subside (as they often do), you end up convinced it was just a stomach flu.
Your Child Experiences Periods of High Energy Interspersed with Tiredness
When your kid acts like he/she is on full-tilt and running around, and then is tired, you assume that the high energy is just "kids being kids," and that the tiredness is the direct result of running around. This is where the disease is especially devious because most parents do not recognize when too much energy and too much tiredness are a real thing. Really knowing what your child is like with regards to his/her usual energy levels is vital to discerning if he/she might have diabetes. You should always take your child to the pediatrician when you notice bizarre shifts in behaviors, moods, sleep patterns, and eating or drinking patterns
Share24 April 2018
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