
June 28, 2002
Research: Causes and Prevention
Question from Spencerville, Ohio, USA:
My 21 month old son was born with hypotonia and has been in therapy since the age of three months. He also is very farsighted and has esotropia. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 14 months of age, and his physician and geneticist both say diabetes was a sudden onset and has nothing to do with his earlier problems. However, he slept all the time as a baby, so it is so hard to believe there is not some connection.
Answer:
I could not think of a common association with the findings that you describe of infancy-onset type�1 diabetes, hypotonia and esotropia, so I did a computer search. I found a few disorders associated with decreased muscular tone in children that can be associated with later onset diabetes, but none seemed to be type 1 diabetes. There a couple of very rare metabolic conditions (genetic in-born errors of metabolism) that one would think would present differently with on-going problems for an affected child.
I think that a discussion with your geneticist, or a referral to a university-based pediatric genetics clinic, might be able to reassure you.
DS