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Juvenile Diabetes
Recognizing the Signs and Getting Help
By Teri Brown
When Shamron Cook's 7-year-old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 juvenile diabetes, she wasn't all that surprised. Her daughter had been showing symptoms of it, and Cook picked up on the signs.
"In December, I noticed she was incredibly thirsty and urinating frequently," Cook says. "I have a family history of diabetes, so I knew this was a big symptom of it. I took her in to a naturopath [ND] and told the ND that I wanted my daughter checked for it. Sure enough, she had it."
After getting the call back from her ND confirming her suspicions, Cook took her daughter to the emergency room for more testing. Her daughter ended up being admitted into the hospital for several days, and they started her on insulin immediately.
"It's been hard, but she's been incredibly brave through it all," Cook says. "Sometimes, though, she gets kind of down and says, 'I don't want this anymore.'"
Diabetes occurs when the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin or the body is not able to use the insulin it is receiving. Insulin is a hormone that allows sugar to be processed effectively. This causes blood sugar levels to rise above what is healthy. There are two different types of diabetes that affect children – type 1 diabetes and pediatric type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Ramin Alemzadeh is the Director of the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin Diabetes Program. He says almost all the patients who get type 2 diabetes are overweight, unlike type 1 diabetes, which has a different cause.
"Type 2 diabetes represents a state of insulin insufficiency and insulin resistance," Dr. Alemzadeh says. "In pediatric type 2 diabetes, almost all patients are obese. In contrast, individuals with type 1 diabetes have insulin deficiency with little or no insulin resistance based on age and pubertal status and BMI [body mass index]."
