Symptoms of juevenile diabetes

[Granmary]

My 5-year old grandaugter is always hungry and wants to eat constantly.  I don't know if she feels thirsty as well but she usually wants to drink along with the eating.  She also seems to be hyperactive - talks constantly and has a very short attention span.  Her father has mentioned that she often has bad breath and foul smelling flatulence.

Her parents have been told by her kindergarten teacher that she might have a learning disability of some kind, or some form of autism.  

Would it be advisable to have her glucose level checked?  The 6-year old son of a friend of mine spent many months in psycho therapy before finally being diagnosed as diabetic.

Would it be possible for you to give me a generalized list of the symptoms of diabetes in children.

Many thanks.

[kimis]

Definitely have it checked out. My 6-year-old was just diagnosed with diabetes Type-1. She had started wetting the bed off and on for a couple of months, she had terrible behavior, public tantrums and all. then she started eating a ton and we noticed she lost weight. Now on a 46 pound girl, losing 3 pounds means a lot. We previously blamed her red dye allergy to the behavior. Maybe it was just the sugar that accompanied the red dye. Don't hesitate to go to the pediatrician. If you mention frequent trips to the bathroom, stomach aches, and tired, your doc should automatically do a urine test.
My daughter has been insulin dependent for almost 3 weeks and she is a different child. Much more pleasant to be around, she looks better, acts better and feels better. It has changed our lives for the better.

[Fishben]

My son is 10.  Ever since he was in about 1st grade (age 6) he has had frequent urination, sometimes going every half hour.  Our doctor did urine cultures and everything came out normal except for acetone in his urine.  He had one spell in first grade of extreme confusion where according to the teacher he was acting strange and sat down on the floor.  He is now in fifth grade and has not had anything like that.  He still pees a lot, but we were contributing it to a dye allergy which our doctor suggested and we have been avoiding red dye which has seemed to make it a little better.  However, lately he has been complaing a lot of headaches and not feeling good, upset stomach, etc.  The other night he said his feet were numb.  He also sometimes gets a lot of pain in the bladder area which seems like it would be bladder spasms.  He also seems to be very tired.  He goes to bed around 9:30 every night and can barely get out of bed at 7:00 AM. I was concerned about diabetes in the past, and now I am starting to worry again.  Do these symptoms sound concerning?

[Granmary]

Thank you so much for your prompt replies to my request.

[jdrf team dm]

Dear Granmary,

We are not medical staff in this forum but voluteers who deal with type 1 diabetes everyday and can only give you our own experience.

I would suggest that you convince her parents to take her in for a simple blood test to rule in or out type 1 diabetes.

Some of the usual symptoms of type 1 diabetes are the following:

Frequent urination
unusual thirst
extreme hunger
weight loss
fatigue
blurred vision
a fruity smell to the breath

While I am not as familar with autism, I would highly recommend that she have a simple blood test to rule out diabetes as soon as possible. Please keep in touch with us and let us know what you find out.If she has diabetes, we will help in any way that we can.

My Best To You,

dm

[JDRF-Team-BL]

Hello,
     The symptoms i had were excessive thirst and hunger. Also having to pee alot. i was getting up 6 or 8 times a night to pee.i also had a cloudy type mindset. So it would be very prudent to have her tested for diabetes, it is only a simple blood test. If it is diabetes she will be feeling quite strange and uncomfortable.
Hope this is a help,
bret

[wolfenastar]

Here is a site that gives some information on symptoms as well as a risk test that you can do. Having her checked for diabetes isn't a bad idea, better safe than sorry i say. Good luck.

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-symptoms.jsp