Hi! I have a 6 year old daughter who was diagnosed with T1D last November. We are adjusting okay to it for the most part. The first symptom I noticed with her was her appetite increased a lot. I even mentioned it to her primary care dr. At a wellness check, but I didn’t know it could be an early sign of T1D then. (Primary care dr didn’t seem concerned either). Recently her little sister (4), has been really increasing her appetite, not quite to truck driver status like her sister was up to last summer, but always hungry. I have a bunch of kids, so I’m used to growth spurts, but I checked her( the 4 year old) bg this am and it was 104, Not terrible, but something I need to want to keep an eye on. She isn’t overweight or anything like that at all. I’m just wondering if I would wait until her fasting bg goes into 120’s (if it does) or if I should talk to primary care earlier? I realize I may be over reacting a bit, she is getting taller /skinnier too. Thanks for any guidance!
My daughter also had the hunger symptom, waking up in the night to have a pb&j, eating a lot and not gaining weight. I knew there was something off and the PCP brushed me aside. Her fasting glucose was 110 and I requested an a1c which was 6.2. We ended up going to the endo who tested for the antibodies and diagnosed her. Good thing we caught it before a crisis. It was several months before she had to start insulin. You sound wise to monitor and maybe some lab work would help…best of luck!
Hi there! I have a 16 year old son, diagnosed 4 1/2 years ago. Shortly after diagnosis the rest of our family tested for antibodies through TrialNet. My middle son had 1 out 5 antibodies, youngest 4 out of 5 antibodies. He participated in 3 Oral Glucose Tolerance Tests that helped with a few more questions too. He was diagnosed this last November. I highly recommending getting tested and also checking blood sugars of sister every once in a while just to keep a record. Also, as good as your PCP may be, go directly to the endo if you have any diabetic questions. Our clinic in Portland, OR, is wonderful from the doctors to diabetic educators. I agree with the post above too, request an A1C, it will give you a better look how the sugars are stacking up in her body.
Good luck!! Everyday is a new day!
Thank you! I’ll have to look up TrialNet! I have heard it mentioned. Thank you also if you were the one who said to go right to the endo, I was wondering about that too!
@Juliet09 Hi Stephanie and a Warm Welcome to the JDRF TypeOneNation Forum! You’ve come to the right place with you question - many parents of newly diagnosed children visit here; you may also want to check the “Resources” tab at the top of the page for additional information.
You didn’t mention if the 104 mg/dl BG Check was before or after eating, so I’ll assume before. Given the inaccuracy of meters [+/- 15%], 104 might actually be “in-range” but it is worthwhile checking her again. I would suggest that you check her BG before a meal and then 90 minutes after and have this information available for her doctor. Being overweight is not usually present at diagnosis of Autoimmune Diabetes - nowadays called TypeOne. Blood Sugar / Blood Glucose results [lab or finger-stick] by themselves do not necessarily indicate diabetes diagnosis without other corroborating signals - her “always hungry” is is a pretty good indicator along with her BG reading.
It isn’t often that Autoimmune Diabetes [T1D] runs in families, even among identical twins. “Genetic Diabetes”, sometimes called MODY, does run in families and appears to be TypeOne to most observers/doctors. Genetic is the result of a miss-formed gene passed on by a parent [in the 1950’s Dr. Joslin was saying the female parent] rather than the body’s immune system killing-off beta-cells which produce insulin and cause Autoimmune.Diabetes. MODY and T1D are usually managed in the same way.
I an NOT a medical professional, my observations and suggestions are shared from my seven decades long living with and studying diabetes.