Our three year old son has had type�1B diabetes for a year, and our one year old daughter has just recovered from a viral infection (or flu) five days ago. She got antibiotics as well. Though she was a big eater, now she is eating almost nothing (half apple and 10 grams of bread), but she drinks a lot. We have had checked her blood sugar several times, but it was normal, and she had a negative antibody tests a year ago. Our doctors said we should not worry as long as her blood sugar is in the normal range. Is this true or not? Can this be the first sign of developing diabetes? What we should do? Is there a method to define the very first phase pre-clinical diabetes?

Negative antibodies and normal blood sugars do not equal diabetes. However, nobody can give you a guarantee that your daughter will never develop diabetes.

KJR
Additional comments from Dr. David Schwartz:

You certainly have reason to be anxious about your daughter developing type 1 diabetes. I suggest that you ask your son’s diabetes team to try to answer your questions. They may wish to repeat the antibody testing periodically since they are often negative in younger children.

If there is a more pressing concern, they could do a very involved intravenous glucose tolerance test that might find “pre-clinical diabetes”, but things would not be any different than where you are now, other than to try to enroll your duaghter in a protocol to try to prevent the development of full-fledged type 1. In addition, if the test is negative, that is not a future guarantee either.

DS