My 10 year old son eats constantly, but has lost 10 pounds in the last week. He says he is thirsty all of the time, but I don’t really see that, and he doesn’t get up at night to use the restroom either. I once asked the doctor (when my daughter was complaining of symptoms of diabetes) about testing and was told that when a child develops diabetes, it happens so fast they get so ill that, and if she had it, she would be hospitalized. As a result, I hesitate to ask him to test my son. He seems healthy otherwise, but it just seems strange that he could lose 10 pounds in one week.

I would recommend discussing your concerns with your physician. Your son may need to be tested for diabetes.

MSB

[Editor’s comment: Testing for diabetes should include blood sugar levels performed by a medical laboratory. The timing of the sample (fasting, random, or postprandial) would influence how high a level is considered abnormal. See Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes Guidelines for further information.

Occasionally, lab blood sugar testing might be normal in an early case of diabetes, repeat blood sugar testing at the same or a different time, or performing a glucose tolerance test, might be appropriate if there is a high suspicion of diabetes despite normal initial testing. Another test, the glycosylated hemoglobin, might be used to help confirm a suspected diagnosis of diabetes, but the GHB (also called HbA1c or A1c) is not usually considered as appropriate to make an initial diagnosis. Antibody testing is occasionally done as a screening test in high-risk situations, or as confirmatory of type type 1A (autoimmune) diabetes, but is not part of routine testing.

Urine sugar tests or home glucose testing, if done, might be positive, which would make the situation more urgent to get lab testing done to confirm the abnormal results. However, urine or home glucose testing, if negative, would not exclude diabetes.

SS]