August 28, 2001
Diagnosis and Symptoms
Question from La Follette, Tennessee, USA:
My two and half month old son weighed 9 pounds, 14 ounces at birth, and my 18 month old son weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces. I did not have gestational diabetes, but I have a paternal grandmother who has type 2 diabetes. My oldest child is very hyper, and a friend told me he might have diabetes. (He doesn’t have any other symptoms, and he rarely eats sweets). Is it likely that I or my sons have or will develop diabetes?
Answer:
I don’t think I have statistics to give you to support a good answer. If you didn’t have gestational diabetes, then the big baby isn’t likely a problem unless the test was too early (before 28 weeks). The children’s risk can be tested with genetic typing for diabetes related genes, but I don’t recommend this to the general population. Type�2 diabetes is more common, but we don’t test genetically for that.
LD
