Juvenile Diabetes Symptoms In 5 Year Old

Juvenile diabetes can affect 5 year old children. It is a condition in which the pancreas cannot produce insulin that your body needs to survive, and you usually need to replace the missing insulin. That’s why it is also called insulin dependent – another alternative name is type-1 diabetes. What are the signs and symptoms of the disease?

Understanding diabetes in general

It is a lifelong metabolic disease that affects how the body uses sugar (glucose), the main source of energy to support your body’s functions. You get glucose from foods, especially foods high in glucose.

In the body, foods that you eat are digested and broken down into glucose and other nutrients which then absorbed into circulation (bloodstream). Therefore the amount of glucose in the blood (blood sugar level) is usually high after a meal. To respond it, the body releases more insulin from pancreas.

Insulin plays a key role to allow glucose move from the bloodstream to the cells and tissues of the body, where eventually it is converted to become energy. As the amount of glucose in the circulation decreases, so does the amount of insulin released by pancreas.

In diabetes, this normal mechanism goes awry. There are several types of diabetes:

1. Type-1 (juvenile diabetes) is a condition in which the pancreas is very poor in making and releasing insulin – even it may not be able to make insulin at all. Patients usually need to take or inject insulin treatment every day to help manage their blood sugar under control.
2. Type-2 is diabetes in which the body cannot make adequate insulin or cannot use insulin effectively (insulin resistance). It is not insulin dependent! Patients don’t always need to take insulin treatment since their pancreas still works and produce some insulin, though sometime they may also need to take insulin.
3. Gestational diabetes. As the name implies, it only occurs during pregnancy. And typically, it will go away on its own after pregnancy. The cause is not fully known. But it’s thought that some pregnancy hormones are to blame. It doesn’t affect all pregnancies. The bad news, pregnant women with it is at high risk of developing type-2 diabetes.

Causes of juvenile diabetes

What experts know that it’s commonly found in patients with autoimmune disorder, a condition of when the body immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys its own healthy cells! Without known reason the immune system attacks islet cells (insulin-producing cells) of pancreas. This can be severe enough to interfere with the pancreas’s ability in making insulin. Even in some cases, pancreas is not able to make insulin at all.

While the exact cause of the disease still remains puzzling, some risk factors have been confirmed. These include:

1. The disease is likely to run in families. In other words, a family history of the same condition has an effect. If you have father, mother, or a sibling (close relative) with juvenile diabetes, your risk of developing the condition is slightly increased!
2. Genetic factor. It’s thought that some people have genetic susceptibility to develop juvenile diabetes. In some cases, genetic testing – usually through a clinical trial – can be used to determine whether a child has certain genes that indicate an increased risk of the condition.

Risk factors are factors or conditions that can increase your risk of developing the disease. Unfortunately, it seems that there are also not many known risk factors for juvenile diabetes. Other possible risk factors include:

1. Exposure to certain viruses may trigger the mistakenly autoimmune attack on insulin-producing cells of pancreas or this exposure may directly infect insulin-producing cells. Some of these viruses are cytomegalovirus, rubella, coxsackie virus, or Epstein-Barr virus.
2. Low level of vitamin D may have an effect, too. But it is still debatable! Early intake of diary cow’s milk (a popular source for vitamin D) might be associated with an increased risk of juvenile diabetes. On the other hand, a few studies also suggest that vitamin D may help reduce the risk of the condition.
3. In baby, research suggests that the timing of the introduction for cereal matters since it may affect the risk of juvenile diabetes in childhood. According to a clinical trial, the ages between 4 and 7 months may be the best time for introducing cereal.
4. Drinking water containing nitrates may also have an effect!

The exact cause of juvenile diabetes is not fully known. But in general, it seems that there may be a combination of different factors!

Juvenile diabetes symptoms in 5-year old

The symptoms can vary. It may take a long time to develop or it may come suddenly. In children, the symptoms usually develop quickly, over a period of months or even weeks. These include:

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Frequent urination

In 5-year old children with juvenile diabetes, the inability of the body in controlling high blood sugar makes the kidneys work harder.

The kidneys are responsible to maintain healthy-balanced, normal blood. They play a key role on what to keep and what to remove from circulation (bloodstream). If there are high amounts of glucose in the circulation (when insulin fails to control it), the kidneys will filter it and remove through urine. As a result, you are likely to pass more urine (frequent urination).

Poorly-controlled high blood sugar is dangerous for the kidney function. Over time, it may cause kidney damage. In fact, kidney disease is one of common serious diabetic complications.

Increased thirst

Frequent urination makes the body lose lots of fluid. As a result the brain activates the thirst center to drink more water. For in-depth information of how high blood sugar can make diabetics get so thirsty, see this previous post!

Intense hunger

Even though if your child has eaten enough, he/she may still have extreme hunger! This is because the glucose – the main fuel for energy – cannot be absorbed by cells of the body if there is no adequate insulin in the circulation.

Fatigue and lack of energy

You need to have adequate supply of energy to support your daily activities. As noted before, the main fuel of your energy is metabolized from glucose. Without enough insulin, glucose cannot be converted to become energy in the cells of the body. As a result, the body’s muscles and organs suffer for lack of energy and you have debilitating fatigue!

Change in behavior (irritability)

Juvenile diabetes may also affect children psychologically. For instance, change in behavior such as moody or irritability is quite common in people with the condition.

Unintended weight loss

Children with juvenile diabetes may fail to gain weight normally, even though they have a good appetite or even an increased appetite. This weight loss problem is also associated with the failure of the body in using and converting glucose for energy. To compensate with the problem and provide fuel to the hungry body’s cells, the body breaks down stored fat and muscle.

Other symptoms

1. Girls with this disease may experience a genital yeast infection. In babies, the yeast infection usually causes diaper rash.
2. High blood sugar may also cause blurred vision, because more fluids are pulled from the eye’s lenses. This can interfere with the ability of patient to focus clearly.

Is there anything you can do to prevent the disease?

Currently, there is no cure for juvenile diabetes. And the bad news, it’s also unpreventable. There is no known way to prevent it!

Test is available to help identify the abnormality of antibodies associated with this disease. It can be done in a child with some risk factors of the disease or who has a high risk of developing the disease. But the presence of these antibodies doesn’t mean that that child will definitely develop the disease – and again, there is also no known way to prevent the disease. This test is usually used in clinical trials.

Although there is still nothing you could have done to prevent the disease, but diabetes care and treatment have improved significantly. Many patients are now able to live long with it – read more the prognosis and outlook of the disease in here!