April 1, 2002
Diagnosis and Symptoms, Genetics and Heredity
Question from Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA:
My six year old son has not been diagnosed with diabetes, but his father and grandfather both have type 1 diabetes, and I believe my son may have it too. I have noticed lately that he has been eating more than usual mainly trying to eat sweets, and he also wets his pants and bed. What I’m really wondering about is lately he has been having outbursts during which he won’t listen to anyone and is sometimes even violent. Could this also be a sign that his sugar may be low? I remember his father seemed to be violent during these times, but he is very sick so he doesn’t help educate me about the things I should be watching for with him. Do you believe type 1 is hereditary? I’ve noticed doctors have a lot of mixed beliefs/facts on this disease.
Answer:
The issue of the magnitude of risk of a child with family history positive for type 1 diabetes hasn’t been fully clarified yet, but in your son’s case, we might say it’s not higher than 6% than a child without positive history for the disease. [ED: See The Risk of Developing Type 1 Diabetes.] That’s not so much indeed.
It is not possible to make any diagnosis based on some vague symptoms as you report and even a random blood sugar using home glucose meter is not accurate enough for this purpose. If you are concerned, you should make an appointment with your son’s doctor and have a blood sugar and urine done by a clinical laboratory in order to exclude any glucose intolerance and also check him for autoantibodies first in order to rule out Type 1A (autoimmune) diabetes.
MS
