My ex-husband recently took our five year old daughter to a different pediatrician to have a full check up done. The doctor had full blood work done on her. It came back the her insulin level is high, that she has “borderline diabetes.” Her triglyceride level is 185 and she is overweight. Should I be worried about this? What can I do to prevent her from getting diabetes? She will be going to see an endocrinologist in about two weeks.

You mention three different problems for your daughter. Being overweight is an all too common problem for children. It is a modifiable problem and should respond nicely to increasing her activity level with routine exercise, limiting her access to foods that are not healthy such as junk food, limiting portion sizes at mealtimes, limiting snacks to healthy foods, and, in general, working to maintain a healthy lifestyle. A triglyceride level of 185 is not excessive, especially if it was not a fasting sample. A borderline high insulin level is of limited use in five year old children. I would need much more information in order to properly interpret that test result. I would suggest taking all of your questions to the pediatrician that did the testing for a more detailed analysis.

MSB