Question from Conroe, Texas, USA:

We adopted our granddaughter at the age of nine months when her mother, my step-daughter, took her own life. Her father is unknown. My husband has type 2, the girl’s maternal great-grandmother and her birth mother had type 2. My granddaughter has had various problems, such as seasonal allergies, stomach aches, repeated swimmers ear, mouth ulcers, bladder infections, repeated yeast infections and last fall, 2003, a Pseudomonas aeruginosa bladder infection that hospitalized her. Individually, these things can be dismissed as “events of childhood”.

My granddaughter is genetically predisposed to weight gain. She has a half sister age, 13, who is growing up with the same weight problems as their birth mother. We are educating our granddaughter about exercise and healthy eating while we are monitoring her diet. At 52 inches tall, my granddaughter weighs 94 pounds.

Though seemingly healthy with normal blood sugars, my granddaughter continues to have episodes that tell me “something” is amiss. Should she see an endocrinologist? And, what should I tell her pediatrician to persuade her to refer her?