So now that I have a healthy baby girl who is still nursing wonderfully, I am concerned about her developing type1. I get nervous when she eats a lot of table food, is cranky or has had dropped a poiund since her last visit. Can anyone with diabetic kids weigh in on this? How did you find out your kids had it?
So cute!
My daughter had just turned 4 (we had also just moved to a new city, she was sharing a room with her sister, new daycare, new jobs for mom & dad) when we noticed she was drinking lots of water. Then waking up in middle of the night asking for water. Then waking up in middle of the night begging for water. We wrote it off to all the "new" in her life. Her 4-year appt with new pediatrician was when she was diagnosed - first words that doctor ever said to me: "I'm sorry, but there is glucose in her urine" and I knew what it meant.
The studies show a likelihood of a child with a mother with type 1 developing type 1 is like 5%, and if the dad has type 1 it's 6% (that might be the other way around - it's been several years since i looked it up).
If you are interested in Prevention and Clinical Trials, anyone with a relative with Type 1 Diabetes is able to partake in Trialnet www.diabetestrialnet.org. This wil tell the individual if they have the high risk genes that are present in people who develop type 1, and will also look for the five antibodies that are normally present in people who are diagnosed with type 1. You'll get the results and a better understanding of risk of individual developing type 1.
If there is risk, they ask if you want to keep checking every 6 months. This means that if there are prevention trials out there for specific at risk individuals - you know about them. trials.jdrf.org/patient has all of the trials that are out there.
The good news - with only one parent with type 1 - the risk is still very low. Obviously, it happens (I was dx at age 2, oldest daughter at age 4, youngest daughter has GAD65 antibody & high risk genes).
First off, your baby is adorable! She must be so much fun.
Like Katie said it's statistically unlikely that your daughter will develop diabetes. I pasted the ADA info below. But someone has to be one of the unlucky people that make up that statistic. Ultimately, there's not a lot you can do about it.
When you are parenting a baby you constantly are protecting her from the world. But as your child gets older she will start to venture out. She'll go to daycare and then school. At some point you realize that you can't protect your child from everything and have to make peace with the fact that you do your best and deal with whatever happens. It takes time to get to that point.
From http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/genetics-of-diabetes.html
Type 1 Diabetes
In most cases of type 1 diabetes, people need to inherit risk factors from both parents. We think these factors must be more common in whites because whites have the highest rate of type 1 diabetes. Because most people who are at risk do not get diabetes, researchers want to find out what the environmental triggers are.
One trigger might be related to cold weather. Type 1 diabetes develops more often in winter than summer and is more common in places with cold climates. Another trigger might be viruses. Perhaps a virus that has only mild effects on most people triggers type 1 diabetes in others.
Early diet may also play a role. Type 1 diabetes is less common in people who were breastfed and in those who first ate solid foods at later ages.
In many people, the development of type 1 diabetes seems to take many years. In experiments that followed relatives of people with type 1 diabetes, researchers found that most of those who later got diabetes had certain autoantibodies in their blood for years before.
(Antibodies are proteins that destroy bacteria or viruses. Autoantibodies are antibodies 'gone bad,' which attack the body's own tissues.)
Type 1 Diabetes: Your Child's Risk
In general, if you are a man with type 1 diabetes, the odds of your child getting diabetes are 1 in 17. If you are a woman with type 1 diabetes and your child was born before you were 25, your child's risk is 1 in 25; if your child was born after you turned 25, your child's risk is 1 in 100.
Your child's risk is doubled if you developed diabetes before age 11. If both you and your partner have type 1 diabetes, the risk is between 1 in 10 and 1 in 4.
There is an exception to these numbers. About 1 in every 7 people with type 1 diabetes has a condition called type 2 polyglandular autoimmune syndrome.
In addition to having diabetes, these people also have thyroid disease and a poorly working adrenal gland. Some also have other immune system disorders. If you have this syndrome, your child's risk of getting the syndrome including type 1 diabetes is 1 in 2.
Researchers are learning how to predict a person's odds of getting diabetes. For example, most whites with type 1 diabetes have genes called HLA-DR3 or HLA-DR4.
If you and your child are white and share these genes, your child's risk is higher. (Suspect genes in other ethnic groups are less well studied. The HLA-DR7 gene may put African Americans at risk, and the HLA-DR9 gene may put Japanese at risk.)
Other tests can also make your child's risk clearer. A special test that tells how the body responds to glucose can tell which school-aged children are most at risk.
Another more expensive test can be done for children who have siblings with type 1 diabetes. This test measures antibodies to insulin, to islet cells in the pancreas, or to an enzyme called glutamic acid decarboxylase. High levels can indicate that a child has a higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes.