May 10, 2001
Research: Causes and Prevention
Question from South Windham, Connecticut, USA:
My five year old son was diagnosed about three years ago, and I have an eight year old daughter and a 19 month old daughter. My son was a healthy 11 pounds 9 ounces at birth. My youngest daughter was also on the heavy side, 9 pounds 9 ounces. My oldest, who I gained the most with, was a small 8 pounds, 3 ounces. There is no family history of gestational or type 1 diabetes for four generations. I am 5 feet 11 3/4 inches tall and weigh 175 pounds, my husband is 6 5 feet tall and weighs 180 pounds. Is there a correlation between high birth weight and developing type 1 diabetes? What are the benefits of having our daughters genetically tested? How do we go about having these tests done?
Answer:
Birth weight really correlates most with maternal risk of diabetes and not much with any child’s risk, per se. Benefits of testing your other kids are knowing if they have antibodies or not — and therefore they do not have to get sick at diagnosis. Negatives are waiting for this to happen if the antibodies really are positive — about a 2% risk for siblings. Negative antibodies do not mean no diabetes risk, just no antibodies at the time of testing.
Your son’s pediatric endocrinologist can arrange for free antibody testing through the DPT-1 national program or you can use commercial islet cell antibody and GAD 65 antibody assays if you do not want to participate in a formal study group.
SB
