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Type 2 Diabetes – Management of Diabetes in Children

January 23rd, 2012

The management of Type 2 diabetes in children is almost the same as for adults, only with a few modifications. If your child is newly diagnosed, you may be wondering about the various treatment options and management for this kind of health problem.

Here is a helping hand with four important points:

1. Routine blood sugar monitoring: This is one of the most important managements for childhood diabetes. Depending on what type of anti-diabetic medication or management your child is currently receiving, his or her blood sugar may be monitored as frequently as three times a day, or as seldom as once a day, or maybe once each week. Regular testing of your child’s blood sugar is the only way to determine whether he/she has good control and is responding well to the prescribed medications.

But even if your child has regular blood sugar monitoring and is following a rigid eating schedule, the blood sugar can sometimes be uncontrolled without warning. As well as food intake, illnesses, stress, physical activity and exercise, and medications can affect your child’s blood sugar control.

2. Eating healthy foods: For better control of Type 2 diabetes, encourage your child to eat healthy foods at home. Have the proper foods and beverages available. It’s hard to drink sugar-free beverages when there is only sugary cola in the house. Healthy foods include vegetables, fruits and whole grains. A high fiber diet can help improve blood sugar levels as well as helping to keep weight normal.

Fast food restaurants have changed what we eat and how much we eat, as well as where we eat. Soda has replaced milk; ketchup and fries have replaced fruits and vegetables. Fast foods typically contain more saturated fat, more sugar or other sweeteners, and more salt than food prepared at home. Extra fat and sugar pile on the calories/kilograms.

3. Regular physical activity: Encourage your child to have his own physical activity/exercise routine. Regular exercise can improve the way his/her body utilizes sugar. And it can also help him/her decrease insulin resistance, the main pathophysiology for childhood Type 2 diabetes. However, remember physical activity may decrease your child’s blood sugar level (BSL) also. Therefore, it is important to check his/her blood sugar before doing any type of exercise. And if the BSL happens to be a little on the low side, give a snack before your son/daughter engages in any exercise routine or play.

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Posted in Diabetes in Children

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Prevalence of Diabetes in Children

January 3rd, 2012

One of the most common diseases found in children and teens is diabetes. 90 to 95% of children with diabetes have type 1 diabetes.the other 5 to 10% have type 2. Most of the time when a child is diagnosed with diabetes it is assumed to be type 1 but in the last 20 years type 2 diabetes has been on the rise with children and teens. More than a thousand children a year are diagnosed with diabetes and health care providers keep finding that more and more of these children have type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder unlike type 1 which is an autoimmune disease. Instead of the body attacking itself and destroying the beta cells it develops a resistance to insulin and starts using it improperly. As a result glucose builds up in the blood causing eventual damage to the kidneys and other organs leading to more complications. Without the glucose being absorbed the body cannot produce energy leaving you feeling tired and exhausted all the time. Health care providers are finding more and more children with type 2 diabetes, a disease usually diagnosed in adults aged 40 years or older.

Research from the American Diabetes Association shows that the increasing rate of obesity and low physical activity may be the cause of this increase of the prevalence of type 2 diabetes among children and teens. Most of the children and teens diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are between 9 and 19 years old, have a family history if diabetes, obese, have insulin resistance, and poor glycemic control. Type 1 diabetes prevalence of U.S. residents aged 0-19 years is 1.7 per 1000.

Because Diabetes in children can go undiagnosed for quite a while it is hard to detect its prevalence. Children can have few or no symptoms and blood tests are needed for an accurate diagnosis.It is difficult to diagnose type 2 or type 1 diabetes in children. The criteria to find the difference between the two is very complicated because children with type 2 can develop ketoacidosis as well as type 1 and type 1 diabetic children can be overweight too and the prevalence of this disease overall is still low.

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Posted in Diabetes in Children

Tags: american diabetes association time time health care Type

Type 2 Diabetes – Preventing Diabetes in Children!

January 3rd, 2012

Being afflicted with illnesses is something we tend to accept as we age. But how tragic it is to see our children become ill due to disease… especially when the condition is avoidable. Type 2 diabetes is one of those conditions we can all work at to keep away from our children. Statistics show one in every 36 children has the disease with these numbers continuing to increase at an alarming rate. Working towards prevention is much better than learning to live with Type 2 diabetes.

In a society where children once rarely developed Type 2 diabetes, it now resembles a plaque sweeping over our children. So what can parents do to protect their children from this dreadful disease? Actually, there are many steps that can be taken. And the great thing about these measures is that they also carry added health benefits in many other areas of our health.

First and foremost in this battle is weight control. Our children have become obsessed with junk food. And society is making it way too accessible. Add to that the warp-speed lifestyle we have created and it spells disaster for eating balanced, wholesome meals.

Maintaining a proper body weight is essential to cutting off a main factor to the development of Type 2 diabetes. The old adage of fruits, vegetables, lean meats and limiting fat is still in effect. Feeding children a diet containing healthy foods, will not only ward off this form of diabetes but will help them excel in other areas too.

But where the weight appears is as important as it actually being present. Children who carry excess weight around their middle, creating an “apple shaped” figure, are at a greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Besides being much more prone to insulin resistance, which is linked to Type 2 diabetes, it causes a host of other health problems such as heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

More than 90 percent of children diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are overweight.

That leads to another culprit: sugar. It appears in everything, from the obvious fast food and soft drinks to many hidden areas. That’s why it is important to scale back on your child’s sugar intake at an early age. Starting an obsession with sugar as a child will be an even harder habit to break as an adult.

Exercise is another crucial factor. A generation ago leisure time was filled with playing outside, sports, riding bikes and running around. These past times have now been replaced with gaming, texting, TV and computer use. Exercise is a critical part of defending the body against this disease. Cardiovascular and pulmonary systems working at efficient levels help to burn sugar, reducing the amount that becomes stored as body fat and keeping blood sugar levels intact.