Type 2 diabetes in children
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Type 2 diabetes in children is a chronic disease that affects the way your child’s body processes sugar (glucose). It’s important to manage your child’s diabetes because its long-term consequences can be disabling or even life-threatening.
Type 2 diabetes is more commonly associated with adults. In fact, it used to be called adult-onset diabetes. But type 2 diabetes in children is on the rise, fueled largely by the obesity epidemic.
There’s plenty you can do to help manage or prevent type 2 diabetes in children. Encourage your child to eat healthy foods, get plenty of physical activity and maintain a healthy weight. If diet and exercise aren’t enough to control type 2 diabetes in children, oral medication or insulin treatment may be needed.
Type 2 diabetes in children may develop gradually. About 40 percent of children who have type 2 diabetes have no signs or symptoms and are diagnosed during routine physical exams.
Other children might experience:
See your child’s doctor if you notice any of the signs or symptoms of type 2 diabetes. Undiagnosed, the disease can cause serious damage. Diabetes screening is recommended for all children and adolescents who are overweight and have at least two other risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
The exact cause of type 2 diabetes is unknown. But family history and genetics appear to play an important role. Inactivity and excess fat — especially abdominal fat — also seem to be important factors.
What is clear is that people with type 2 diabetes don’t process glucose properly anymore. As a result, sugar accumulates in the bloodstream instead of doing its normal job of fueling the cells that make up muscles and other tissues.
Most of the glucose in people’s bodies comes from the food they eat. When food is digested, sugar enters the bloodstream. Moving sugar from the bloodstream to the body’s cells requires a hormone (insulin).
Insulin comes from the pancreas, a gland located behind the stomach. The pancreas secretes insulin into the bloodstream after a person eats.
As insulin circulates, it allows sugar to enter the cells — and lowers the amount of sugar in the bloodstream. As the blood sugar level drops, so does the secretion of insulin from the pancreas.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body becomes resistant to insulin or when the pancreas stops making enough insulin. The resulting buildup of sugar in the bloodstream can cause life-threatening complications.
Researchers don’t fully understand why some children develop type 2 diabetes and others don’t, even if they have similar risk factors. However, it’s clear that certain factors increase the risk, including:
Type 2 diabetes can affect nearly every major organ in your child’s body, including the blood vessels, nerves, eyes and kidneys. The long-term complications of type 2 diabetes develop gradually. But eventually, diabetes complications may be disabling or even life-threatening.
Complications of type 2 diabetes include:
Keeping your child’s blood sugar level close to normal most of the time can dramatically reduce the risk of these complications.
Healthy lifestyle choices can help prevent type 2 diabetes in children and its complications. And if your child already has type 2 diabetes, lifestyle changes can reduce the need for medications. Encourage your child to:
Better yet, make it a family affair. The same lifestyle choices that can help prevent type 2 diabetes in children can do the same for adults. The best diet for a child with diabetes is also the best diet for the whole family.
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Type 2 diabetes in children
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