November 24, 2002
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from Doncaster, United Kingdom:
My three year old daughter has had excessive thirst, constant thrush, tiredness, and irritability for nearly two years. Recently I was advised to put her on a sugar free diet, and I have managed to control a lot of the symptoms by doing this. I have had her urine tested and it was normal, but she hadn’t had any sugar in her diet for a week prior. Is there a possibility that this could be the start of diabetes?
Answer:
Your daughter’s complaints are rather unlikely to be due to diabetes. There are several others possible causes for the symptoms and, since she’s been complaining over the last two years, that’s too long to be due to a true prediabetic phase. The symptoms of type 1 won’t disappear even if you don’t give her any sugar. Obviously a fasting serum blood sugar needs to be done in order to rule out the possibility of diabetes.
MS
