January 6, 2002
Complications, Other
Question from Bartlett, Illinois, USA:
My almost three year old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 10 months of age, and in all of my research and communications with other parents, I have only learned of one other child being diagnosed so young. How rare is such an early diagnosis? Will the fact that he developed diabetes at such a young age have a greater impact his long term health (care and control issues assumed to be consistent)?
Answer:
Diabetes can indeed occur in the newborn though the etiology is different from type�1A (autoimmune) diabetes. The latter is uncommon in the first year of life, but not unknown. Likewise, I don’t think that there can be any figures for life expectancy and complications in relation to age at diagnosis because these have been improving year by year. What does seems to be true is that long term prognosis depends more on the degree of sustained blood sugar control than anything else.
DOB
