Does Your Child Have Juvenile Diabetes: How Diabetes May Affect Your Children

In today’s world, there are thousands of people who are diagnosed with juvenile diabetes daily. In medical terms, diabetes is a chronic disease which decreases the body’s capability to break down the complex of glucose and store it properly.

As a result, there is improper processing of glucose in the body and hence, glucose travels back to the bloodstream causing various health problems like this.

What exactly happens?

Once you take in food, a portion of that food is kept aside and broken into sugar. Later on, this sugar passes through the blood and reaches body cells. (With the help of special hormone called insulin produced by pancreas)

In normal conditions, the pancreas efficiently produces a certain amount of insulin to control the sugar level in the blood. However, the pancreas of a juvenile diabetic child is unable to excrete insulin and that’s why cells do not have sugar control.

Sugar keeps on accumulating in the blood and passes out unused.

Juvenile diabetes brings along many complications in the body like heart trouble, vision problem, effect on kidneys and nerves, etc. That is why it is very important to take medication if you are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

What are the signs?

There are mainly 2 types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2.

Type 1 diabetes: this is the early diabetes which is diagnosed in children only. Basically type 1 diabetes is called juvenile diabetes and most children are on insulin due to this. Insulin keeps them working as it converts the sugar into energy. Moreover, juvenile diabetes is grouped in “auto-immune” diseases with other diseases like sclerosis and arthritis.

Type 2 diabetes: this type of diabetes usually occurs in obese adults. But recent research unfolds that youngsters can also be prone to type 2 diabetes. In type 2 diabetes you do not need insulin treatment. It can be controlled with a proper diet and exercise routine only. This mainly happens due to heredity. In this type pancreas produce less amount of insulin in the body.

Type 1 juvenile diabetes symptoms in children are:

• recurrent urination
• hazy vision
• excessive irritation and thirst
• vomiting and unsettled stomach
• weight loss due to exaggerated desire to have food
• extreme weakness and fatigue
• difficulty in breathing
• feeling of exhaustion or sluggishness
• fruity stink on the breath

So if your child has any of the above symptoms then you should immediately consult a doctor.

What is the treatment of Juvenile Diabetes?

Symptoms in children can be a great risk to their other body organs and need immediate treatment. There is no complete cure for it. Regular treatment is done with the help of insulin injections or pump.

Till now, insulin tablets have not been discovered and that is a major drawback. A juvenile diabetic should always calculate his or her sugar levels once a day with a sugar machine. In case of mild diabetes, your doctor may prescribe oral medication (like Actos) to you. But oral medicine alone cannot control it by itself.

Early Signs of Juvenile Diabetes Mellitus should never be ignored. If you are a Juvenile Diabetic you should also follow a strict Diabetes Diet and exercise routine.