Type 1 diabetes is often called childhood diabetes, but can actually strike at any stage of the life-cycle. In Type 1 diabetes the body stops producing insulin. A series of blood and urine tests can diagnose the condition, although parents ma yhasten the diagnosis with careful observation of their child's symptoms.
Instructions
Diagnosing Type 1 Diabetes
1. Watch to see if you child wets the bed. If, after your child has been toilet trained, he or she begins to wet the bed, look for additional symptoms.
2. Observe if your child has frequent urination and excessive, often unquenchable thirst. Incidentally, this is what often leads to night-time bed wetting
3. Make an appointment with your pediatrician, if your child has these symptoms as well as hunger and fatigue or blurred vision. The pediatrician will check for sugar in the blood (if sugar is not metabolized by insulin, it spills into the urine) or a high blood sugar reading in a blood test. If either of those tests show elevated sugar, your doctor will likely order additional testing.
4. Take your child to get the additional tests. Tests include the A1C test, which assesses the blood sugar levels in your blood for the previous three months to see how well your insulin is working in the long term. Your doctor may also take a fasting blood sugar test. If levels are over 110, diabetes is indicated. Some doctors also use non-fasting blood tests where a reading of more than 200 indicates diabetes.
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