How To: Understanding Diabetes in Kids

More than 18,000 kids in the United States are diagnosed with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Le Bonheur Diabetes Educator, La Tonya Ivy, RN, MSN, answers some questions about the disease below.

What are some of the signs and symptoms of diabetes in kids?
The signs and symptoms of diabetes, or hyperglycemia, for children are very similar to the signs and symptoms expressed in adults. They include increased thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger, unplanned weight loss, blurred vision, tiredness/weakness and irritability (change in behavior). Another classic sign is ketonuria, or ketones in the urine. The most common symptoms that prompt parents to seek medical attention are extreme weight loss, tiredness/weakness (change in child's level of activity) and bedwetting after their child has been potty trained.

How common is diabetes in kids?
Diabetes is a very common chronic disease in childhood. In fact, there is an increasing incidence and prevalence of both Type 1 and Type 2 in the 0- to 20-year age group. Approximately 13,000 youths in the United States are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and 3,700 youths are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes annually, according to the 2010 CDC report.

What's the difference between Type 1 and Type 2?
Diabetes is a condition that causes elevated blood glucose (sugar) levels. It is an imbalance of blood glucose and insulin. Insulin is the key that allows glucose to be used by our body properly.

Type 1 and Type 2 are two common forms of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas, the organ responsible for insulin secretion, does not make any insulin. Whereas, Type 2 diabetes occurs when insulin resistance is present and when the insulin secreted by the pancreas is not enough to meet the body's demand.

The way I've often described it to parents is that persons with Type 1 diabetes have a pancreas that stops making insulin, and those with Type 2 have a pancreas that makes some insulin, but that insulin just does not work like it should.

How do you help kids with diabetes manage their diabetes?
Diabetes management requires support from family and friends, health care providers and the community. As a diabetes educator, I provide training, counseling and support for the child with diabetes and his/her family during outpatient clinic visits and during the outpatient diabetes self-management education program. The same service is provided in the hospital, as Le Bonheur has three diabetes educators (two inpatient based and one 1 outpatient based). Specific to the pediatric population, our educators reach out to both public and private schools in the tri-state community.

The educators, in collaboration with other health care providers, have the ultimate goal of empowering persons with diabetes and their families to self-manage their condition, motivate them to successfully meet personal goals, and equip them with the knowledge of diabetes basics, healthy coping skills, techniques to reduce risk of complications, problem-solving strategies, and proper utilization of diabetes devices.