April 20, 2002
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Loxton, South Australia, Australia:
My two week old baby boy, who weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces when born and now weighs 10 pounds 10 ounces, has extremely wet diapers and often pees again while I am changing him, breast feeds every three to four hours, and has scalding to his bottom. I had a borderline glucose while pregnant with him and we have a family history of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. I am just so worried that he may have diabetes (primarily due to amount of urine he puts out). Is it possible for a newborn to have diabetes? If so, how do I convince his doctor to test for it?
Answer:
Newborn diabetes does exist but is very rare. It is easy to test urine for the presence of glucose (sugar) with a dipstick. It is also quite easy to have the hospital or clinic lab test a small capillary drop of blood for glucose levels as well.
I would suggest that you ask this question directly to your nurse or physicians and let them arrange to check this out and ease your worries. If there is any questions of abnormal results, then consultation with an experienced pediatric endocrinologist/diabetologist would be reasonable for more detailed hormone and antibody testing.
SB
