My husband and I found out that our son was diabetic when he was 15 months old, he is now 21 months old and I am due with our second child in about 4 months. The doctors tell us that not enough research has been done to get a good idea on the chances of our future children being Type 1's as well. I was just wondering if any of you type 1's out there also have siblings who have been diagnosed as well. Just out of curiosity I guess. I would love to hear from you even if your siblings have not been diagnosed, then I get a better idea of how this disease has been dealt out I guess. Thanks for your help!
I was diagnosed on June 13, 2006. My whole family has been fine until March 26 this year. My older brother who is 17 was diagnosed. He is doing fine, mainly because he knows about lows, highs, and I taught him to count carbs. My other two siblings were tested for the anti-body, and they tested negative. We researched type one diabetes in families, and only 6% of siblings will get diabetes if another sibling has it. I am on the pump, and my older brother is on the insulin pen.
Hope this helps :)
I have had T1 since 1942, 66 years ago. I have one sister, and she (and 3 children and 2 grandchildren) has never developed diabetes.
I am the only diabetic in my entire extended family, however there are several different autoimmune diseases in my family.
Sara,
Thanks for your feedback, it really helped! I was interested by something you said about being tested for an anti-body. I've never heard of that before!! Is it just an anti-body specific to the Type 1 disease?
Thank you for responding Tom! I am glad to hear that the disease has not popped back up in your family! Even though I know there are still chances of our future kids getting it, hearing about situations like yours makes me feel better.
dont let me jinx my bro but not yet knock on wood im the only one in my family
I am the only one in all of my extended family with T1. A couple have T2, but other than that, I'm the only one.
I have two younger sisters. The youngest (14) is not diabetic (fingers crossed it stays that way). My other sister was diagnosed type 1 at age 5 (now 17). I was diagnosed at 17, nearly two years ago.
I was diagnosed right before I turned 6 and my brother was diagnosed in his mid teens about 10 or 11 years after me.
No one in my family has type one but autoimmuine diseases run in the family. Mostly me and my mom. I have graves disease and my mom has lupus and chronic dry eye. Is it just me or do other people sometimes wish there sibling could have diabetes for just like two days.
Yes, the anti-body only relates to Type 1. My non-diabetic siblings took the test when they drove me to diabetes camp. The test tests if you have the anti-bodies that cause type 1. If you have the antibodies, it doesn't mean you'll FOR SURE get the disease, it just means that you're at higher risk. If you don't have the antibodies, that means that you have a very low chance of developing the disease soon, but there's still a chance that you will develop the antibodies eventually
I was dx'ed at 19 in 2006, and my brother was just diagnosed this year at age 26. I didn't think it was genetic at all in my family until he got symptoms and was diagnosed, too.
I was diagnosed Feb 27, 1979 at age 7. My older brother Bill was diagnosed in October of that year as he turned 18. My younger brother, John, was diagnosed 15 years to the day after I was at age 22. My other older brother Chuck is Diabetes-free at 46 now. Bill's middle son was 2 or 3 when diagnosed a few years back and is now 9.
I got diabetes when I was 3. My grandmother also had type one diabetes which she got in her 20's. I heard it genetic but I also heard that it is very unlikely for two children from the same parents to have it. The larger the family though, the more likely it will happen. Also you should talk to your doctor about pedatric diabetes (I think thats what its called) Some kids that are dignosed when younger then 2 don't really have diabetes but they just have something that seems like it. If it is the case, all your son would need to do is take a pill everyday and thats all. Its a slim chance, but you never know.
I have heard the chances are 1 in 20 for a 1st degree relative to also develop T1. I am a father of four, and yesterday our 15 yo was diagnosed after having the antibodies for two years. Now, three of my four kids have T1. The ages of diagnosis were 5, (who is 19 now and also has celiac), 9 and 15. Our 11 yo does not have it yet and does not have the antibodies. We are in the PANDA study. Autoimmune diseases run in my family. I have a niece with celiac, another with thyroid disease, and a nephew with alopecia. The only I might have done differently would be to get the gluten out of our diet sooner. We've kept gluten free for about two years. See http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/08/26/wheat-consumption-may-contribute-to-diabetes.html This is just a theory at this time, and would only be applicable to folks with a gluten introlerant physiology. Still, it's something for you to think about. Celiac is correlated with T1. About one in twenty T1's also has celiac disease, but only about 1-150 of the general population is celiac. Enjoy those babies! I miss those days!
So we went through genetic testing. My two older brothers were tested. Neither of them had T1 at the time. The results came back, and my oldest brother was, supposedly, the one who had a one in four chance of getting T1. The other brother? According to the test, he had the same chance of becoming T1 as any person on the street.
Guess who ended up being diagnosed? The brother who had the same chance as any person on the street. I don't think that there is any way of ever knowing for sure. I think what matters to me, in retrospect, is perhaps the sanity (or lack thereof) in the way my parents handled T1. How did that translate from me, T1 since five years old, to a brother who no one expected to get it, who watched all of this go down and was extremely self absorbed and thought that nothing that I did was a big deal, until it happened to him? I think the best "prevention" is not prevention as much as being as healthy from a psychological perspective as is humanly possible. Not worrying (anxiety is contagious) or projecting onto well siblings, not being obsessive or overly controlling with T1 siblings...
In other words, be exactly who you already are.
No one asks for this garbage, but from this perspective, it's always possible, and it's always equally not possible. There's no way to know if and when.
Easier said than done. I wish you the best. You parents of T1 are heroes in my book, always. I hope T1 doesn't happen again. Statistics, as in the case of my own history, genetic testing, etc. can't predict possibility. Life is too precious to spend thinking about it...
Well, if I had my way. It's trite to say just don't do something. It's what I would have wished for my own parents. I saw their worry growing up. There wasn't anything I could do to make it better for them. I felt responsible for it.
I've had diabetes for about 10 years now and I have a brother who is 3 years older, but I don't know anyone in my immediate or extended family who has T1 diabetes.
No one in my extended or immediate family has type 1 or even type 2. I've had type 1 since I was 4, and I'm pretty sure that my younger brother (12) was tested and did not have any antibodies, and my half-sister has never been tested. Sometimes I wish I wasn't the only one in my family but I'm glad that my brother doesn't have it because he has plenty of other issues to deal with.
Wow, it seems to be really common for siblings to be diagnosed. So far my 3 year old is the only one. I've had the chance to get my 16m old tested for antibodies, but I haven't done it. I think I'd rather not know if he has the antibodies, I already get paranoid when he drinks or pees too much or doesn't eat enough. I don't know....