Question from Cleveland, Ohio, USA:

My 16 month old grandson has been having some problems lately that I’m concerned about. He has only gained three ounces in three months, has been to the doctor and hospital about five to six times in last few months for ear infections and yeast type infections of his penis which I thought may have been from the antibiotics he was on, but now I wonder. He has loss of appetite, becomes very fussy and picky, irritable, and I noticed yesterday he was extremely thirsty and screamed for a bottle of water I was holding and gulped it like he had been on a desert island. He would eat half a watermelon if you gave it to him. He has just become a irritable baby with fewer and fewer good days whereas he was such a calm sweet baby until about six weeks ago.

I hate to say this but something clicked in my woman’s intuition and said to check out diabetes.Call me a quirky old grandma but I just had to check out what I was feeling, I’m concerned that his doctors (who only sees him for 10 minutes every three months) was not concerned about his three ounce weight gain in three months. How on earth can you diagnose a 16 month old for diabetes? What would the symptoms in a 16 month old who can’t communicate what is bothering him be?