February 18, 2001
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Louisville, Kentucky, USA:
My daughter-in-law was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when she was 13 years old. She had repeated bouts of illnesses that eventually causes the physicians to diagnose the diabetes, but too late. She recently had a child who is now one year old, and she is very worried the same thing will happen to her daughter.
A few weeks ago, her daughter became very ill (runny nose, cough high fever, listlessness, vomiting, would not eat or drink, etc.) which lasted for two and one-half weeks. She is now better, but still has the cough that has now turned to a croupy sound that doesn’t seem to want to loosen up. She still vomits occasionally when given formula, or cough medicine. What she coughs up is usually the formula and phlegm. Why would a physician not attempt to test a child for sugar levels in the urine?
Answer:
Assuming that your daughter-in-law has type�1A (autoimmune) diabetes, then the chance of her daughter having the same problem is only about 5%. Nonetheless, if she is worried, it would be very simple for her to test her daughter’s urine for glucose herself and perhaps to do a fasting blood sugar too. If there were any indication of the tests being positive, then it would be important to ask the doctor for a formal confirmation. Respiratory infections are so common at this time of year in children that urine specimens are not routinely screened unless there is a specific indication.
DOB
