Why do you think your child has type 1 diabetes?

[Pinson]

This is a question I would like to ask to the parents of children with T1 diabetes:
Why do you think you child has type 1 diabetes?
I am interested not only by "rational" answers, for example related to the genetic links, but also by any other ideas/beliefs you may have (even if they appear "silly"), regarding the cause of your child's condition. I am also interested in thoughts and feelings you may have had, of religious or cultural or any other nature, and also ideas that crossed your mind even a few seconds, that have led you to link the diabetes of your child with something that happened

I would be very grateful if you would like to share this with me, with us. I would like to ask people who will participate to this discussion to avoid any jugement, and not to make attempts to demonstrate that participant's ideas are not founded.

So...I believe my child has type one diabetes because when he was a little, he was affected by severe asthma. He was prescribed oral cortisone many times, which saved his life, but I believe that this medication is the cause of his T1D. One of the possible side-effect of cortisone is T1D, this is a fact stated by the manufacturer of the oral cortisone taken by my child.

On the other hand, I have always wondered if the difficult delivery I (and my child) experienced (long hours, forceps), may explain why my child has type 1 diabetes.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Pinson

 

[suzi]

Hi Pinson,
My son was diagnosed at the age of 7yr 3mths, i believe his condition may have been bought on by a series of events in his young life. Starting at birth, delivered by Ceasarean section, in incubator 48hrs due to breathing difficulties.
April 2003 - A severe case if chickenpox, aged 4yrs 5mths.
August 2003 - Anesthetic for Tonsilectomy, aged 4yrs 9mths.
May 2004 - Anesthetic, two teeth extracted, aged 5yrs 6mths.
Feb 2006 - diagnosed T1 Diabetes, aged 7yrs 3mths.
April 2007 - Anesthetic, diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, aged 8yrs 5mths.
Have a T1 Aunt, (my mothers sister) But no other family history of the condition, Andrew was totally breastfed and ate natural food, no jars. Have to admit i don't blame anyone, but then i can't really put my finger on what exactly set his diabetes in motion, perhaps the series of anesthetics, chicken pox affected his immune system. I don't give my self a headache trying to work it out, i just get on with it, as i have since his diagnosis, after all blaming something or someone wont take it away.
Good topic, will be interested in other parents thoughts,
Suzi x

 

[sophsmam]

our daughter was dignosed last october aged 10 diabetes does run on myside of the family both type 1 and 2.i blamed myself for giving her sweets when i was never going to which i know is totally wrong.
she started going though puberty at the age of 7 was that the cause,or was it the nasty stomach bug she got or the virus she got.that is something i'll never know.
your son's had it rough suzi.

 

[Shazza]

My 11 yr old Son was diagnosed 3 weeks ago, since then I,ve found out my Aunt (Dads Sister) has T1, apart from that I havent got a clue he,s always been healthy just the usual colds etc and had a completly normal birth.

 

[leggott]

Hi, My two children were diagnosed within a day of each other. My son at 4 and my daughter aged 6, that was back in May this year. My husband is type 1 so they probably had a predisposition to it. Having said that there is no one else in his family with it. I'm not really sure about a trigger, but my daughter had a stomach bug in February which led to pneumonia. My son had been fit and healthy right up to diagnosis. I sometimes think it may have been triggered by MMR jab but it probably wasn't. I know it won't help knowing, but it does bug me at times. I also have another child aged 17 months so the worry is always there that she may get it. I know there is nothing we can do to prevent that, but it is only natural as a parent to worry!
My sons starts school tomorrow so I'm now worrying about that too!!

 

[flojos mum]

hello,
My daughter was diagnosed last October aged 10. She had previously shown signs of starting puberty but I think hormones are only partly the cause. She had molluscum contagiosum, which are wart like lumps common in childhood but usually only a few lumps and last up to a year. Chloe had them for nearly three years and had up to 50 in total which before each spot disappeared would get very angry looking and infected and left some scarring, doctors kept telling me they were nothing to worry about and treatment wasn't needed, she had always been well but since having this she caught every cold and sore throat going. Six months after the last one went we were in hospital trying to get our heads round diabetes.
We have since meet 3 children who have diabetes and had a severe case of molluscum contagiosum, Chloes 3 year old sister has them now so lets hope I'm very wrong!
Charlie

 

[sophsmam]

our youngest daughter 4 had molluscum contagiosum she must have been 2.i can remember telling my dad and he thought it was our fault i was very upset about that.i hope there isn't there a link there.

 

[flojos mum]

sorry I didnt mean to worry anyone, Sophsmam, Alot of children have them its very very common and has no long lasting effect- I cannot stress how common they are.
But Chloe had a particularly bad reaction to them, antibotic cream and medicine on occassions to fight infections in skin. Her consultant has guessed that this on top of hormone increase due to her age may have triggered her diabetes. I was just concerned about her younger sister as she has had to have antibotic cream and medicine twice in the last year for them but there is nothing I can do about controlling them so what will be will be.
Sorry for worrying you- I am only guessing.

 

[sophsmam]

no flojos mam you didn't worry me if she does she does can't change it.i'd forgotten she'd had it till you mentioned it.she tells her sister to check her bloods etc so im sure she'd cope just fine if she did.
hows your daugher doing anyway was reading one of her posts the other day.

 

[flojos mum]

Sophs mam,
Chloe is doing really well, started secondary school last week and a completly different girl. we decided before she started to use it as a fresh start, new friends, new school ect. She is blossoming and returned to the cheerful happy giggling non stop talking Chloe we all know and love. Even heard her singing in the shower for the first time in ages. The school are a million times better than her primary school and dont see it as a burden at all- so far! The teachers she has spoken to about her diabetes have all said you do what ever you need to do and not made a fuss over any of it at all, exactly what she needed, lets just hope that doesnt mean they don't really understand but only time will tell.
Due to her being happy and active her blood sugars are really good, a few not noticed hypos but we are used to that situation now, Can I even say it I have had a few full nights sleep- but dont say that too loud it could all change!

 

[hennypenny]

hi, i was told when my son was diagnosed that the cause of type 1is a virus, like a cold virus. the big difference is, is that most people are immune to it. it can be passed on but the it only attacks the islet cells in the pancreas in some people. once it has began it cannot be stopped and so type 1 begins. the consultant said that this was known, what they don't know yet is why only some people are susceptible and why it attackes the pancreas. he also said that type 1 was not passed on through men, which we felt slightly relieved at, however i personnly belive that there must be something hereditary because just look at the numbers in families. it made sense to us though and it does make you think. my son was diagnosed within days of another boy who attends an after school club run by the same people who run the nursey he used to attend.

we were also told that children who are susceptible to colds and illnesses are more prone to catching the "type 1" virus, which again we related to as my son picks up every cold and tummy bug and almost a year before we finally got the diagnosis had the most awful tummy bug that went on forever, followed by a chest infection, followed by ear infections then by tonsillitis, then febrile convulsions, then we had about 6 weeks off then a 4 month long bout of diarhea started, at which point the gp was fed up with us and as soon as the bed wetting started i demnded a diabetes test and then the fun started, followed by a profuse apology from the gp for not listeneing, but that's beside the point. so somewhere in all that illness he developed type 1.

hope that helps someone, it's just fate no blame anywhere. we try to protect our children from as much as we can and in the end it's something you never see coming. Rosie

 

[sophsmam]

our daughter never got a cold till she got diabetes now always got a sniffle.she used to suffer from really bad tummy bugs no one else would get them just her.
How did you all the notice the signs.
i'd noticed that she started to get up during the night,and one day the day before she was dignosed she drank 3 drinks in 30 mins.with it running in my family i knew sort off what to look out for.but also other signs craving sweets.always hungry and i thought it was just greed.losing weight which we all put down to her loosing her puppy fat,very moody for no reason but still is and very tired.i'd just given birth 4 days before and her dad took her,when he phoned i didn't believe it till her bloods tests confirmed it.she was heartbroken on the phone so sad to hear her upset.
its nice to hear from you all and to hear how well you all cope especially the children.

 

[Jen&Khaleb]

My son has Down syndrome, his chromosome 21 is in triplicate. He had a 1 in 50 chance of getting diabetes because of this problem. He is at risk of a very large list of other things as well. I think his diabetes is purely because of his genetic condition. Khaleb tested positive for auto-immune disease from blood tests in his first weeks of life. I was warned repeatedly about the possiblity of leukaemia, also common amongst children with Down syndrome. Khaleb was 8 months old when admitted to hospital DKA.

Because Khaleb tested positive to auto-immune disease as an infant I do not think any environmental factors would of changed the outcome.

Jen

 

[Shazza]

our daughter never got a cold till she got diabetes now always got a sniffle.she used to suffer from really bad tummy bugs no one else would get them just her.
How did you all the notice the signs.
i'd noticed that she started to get up during the night,and one day the day before she was dignosed she drank 3 drinks in 30 mins.with it running in my family i knew sort off what to look out for.but also other signs craving sweets.always hungry and i thought it was just greed.losing weight which we all put down to her loosing her puppy fat,very moody for no reason but still is.i'd just given birth 4 days before and her dad took her,when he phoned i didn't believe it till her bloods tests confirmed it.she was heartbroken on the phone so sad to hear her upset.
its nice to hear from you all and to hear how well you all cope especially the children.

Hi

I noticed the signs straight away but put it down to other things my son was losing weight, I thought that was his age he,d also got a bike and was cycling loads, and puberty, he wet the bed a few times which he,d never done even as a baby ... I presumed as summer hols and out of routine he,d been drinking too much, tried to get an appt at docs mainly cause of bed wetting, which took over a week then got a useless trainee, who told us prob urine infection did no test and to come back to the nurse in a week to get blood tests, 1 week later bloods taken in morning and paramedic at door 10pm that night, his sugars were 26 and they couldnt believe he was so well, even the parmedic wanted to send him back to bed lol I presume he was lucky cause im on and off weightwatchers like yoyo so kids always gets diet juice/crisps etc anyway we ended up at the hospital that night and spent the wknd there learning all the info.

he got diagnosed in Aug but looking back I,m sure it started in April, as I said he was always healthy altho when he does get a stomach bug and it s rare he is so sick its unreal anyway, In April he was extremely tired and for 1st time ever complained of sore heads every few days, i took him to docs for tests who reffered me to opticions they both said he was healthy, looking back this was definetly the start of his diabetes

 

[SophiaW]

I really don't know how Jess got diabetes or exactly when it started. We have no family history of diabetes nor do I know anyone who has either type of diabetes so it was quite a shock and learning curve, I knew absolutely nothing about it in the beginning.

Jess was 4 and had started school in the september. I remember her being quite tired and unable to walk very far without wanting to be picked up and carried. I remember walking home from school (around the middle of September) and she couldn't make the 10 minute walk home without wanting to be carried. I remember telling her that she is a big girl and should be able to walk home like all the other children. I thought that she was just very tired from school, she had been at school for only the mornings in the first few weeks and now she had moved onto a full school day. I put the tiredness down to her not being used to a busy school day.

At the same time I noticed that she was thinning out, her face had lost all that toddler chubbiness. But I thought that was simply her getting older and thinning out as she lost her baby fat. She was also becoming a fussier eater, something she never had a problem with in the past. But my son is a fussy eater so I just assumed that this is how she was going to be too.

Then we both got a flu-like virus and she took about a week off school. She was full of head cold and generally feeling miserable, she started drinking quite a lot of fluids but I put that down to having a head cold and needing more fluids. I was also feeling pretty miserable but after about 5 days we both seemed to be getting much better.

Jess's thirst didn't go away though, she got thirstier. I sent her back to school on the Monday as she seemed to be over the virus, although still easily tired and quite thirsty. The teacher found her crying in the girls toilets and phoned me, I collected her from school thinking that perhaps she needed a few more days to get over the virus. I was also unsure whether perhaps she was finding school difficult because some times during the day she seemed to be full of energy and very happy as though nothing was wrong with her and then at other times she couldn't muster energy for anything.

I made an appointment for the doctor because I was getting concerned about her drinking so much and she had started wetting the bed overnight. I had taken her off drinking squash (thinking perhaps it was the taste of it that she liked too much) and put her onto drinking water. She generally doesn't like water but was drinking it in huge quantities which is unusual for her. I had no idea that this was a symptom of diabetes.

Our Dr's appointment was for the following day and that evening she started vomiting. I put it down to her not being completely over the bug yet and as we were seeing the Dr the next morning I left it. She didn't have a temperature. Looking back now I can't believe how stupid I was not to put it all together. Luckily our GP immediately recognised the symptoms and did a keytone and BG test. Keytones showed very high and BG was off the scale. She packed us straight off to hospital. They put her onto a drip as she was dehydrated and started insulin injections the next morning. Almost immediately her appetite returned and I've never seem a small child eat so much! The change in her was almost immediate, the excessive drinking stopped, she was back to her happy self. She was still quite tired for a few days but soon she was buzzing around, she has always been a very energetic child.

Initially I thought it was the virus that caused her diabetes. But now when I look back I think she was showing symptoms before she got the virus. So I really don't know what caused it, it could have been anything.

 

[sophsmam]

when we told the doctors at the hosiptal her symptons which we didn't think were even related were.
her nanna had noticed well before the 6 weeks holidays she was loosing weight,but just put it down to her loosing her puppy fat.when she stayed at there house while i gave birth she'd noticed that one minute she was full of energy the next just couldn't be bothered.we just didn't put two and two together.it wasn't till she drank 3 drinks in 30 mins did i then think of diabetes,even when the doctors said they were 99% certain it was.we knew it was but kept thinking maybe it isn't maybe it's something else but it wasn't.i wished i'd spotted it sooner all the signs were there looking back.

 

[Alsteven]

Hi, I have 4 children. 3 lads 1girl-2 of my sons are type 1. My eldest child was diagnosed with T1 at age 14, he is 21 now. My youngest child was diagnosed T1 aged 6 (2 years after the eldest was diagnosed), he is now 11. Last year my 11 year also diagnosed ADHD. My 19 yr old daughter is fine and my other son aged 14 is asthmatic and has been referred for Autistic Spectrum Disorder, poss or some other form of high functioning Autism. So ALL 3 of my sons have type 1 diabetes/ Autistic spectrum disorders/Asthma. Only my daughter remains unaffected by any chronic health issues.
Both of my T1 sons were diagnosed very early indeed due to my having a "gut feeling" that something not right. Granted their were other indicators like the excessive drinking and going the loo during the night but I just knew that there was something off. I know it sounds weird and I dont believe in 6th senses n suchlike but thats how it went. I believe that there is credibility in genetic factors. However, my gut feeling about why this has happened points me in the direction of MMR jabs. Dont ask me how I came to that conclusion per se but the whole MMR-Autism thing rings true with me partly because of the huge increase in cases of ADHD/ASD diagnosis over the past 20 years. Someone "professional" on the matthew wright ( The Wright Stuff) show a few months back said that environmental effects like viruses and artificial exposure to viruses such as in immunisation can act as triggers for Autistic tendencies. My childrens pead diabetic nurse told me there is a link with diabetes and viruses.
I consider that there is also a link between MMR and the introduction of viruses to children via immunisation that can trigger cell mutations that can lead to T1 and Autism in later life. We know that there is the link with viruses so why not with vaccines which after all contain virus/ multiple viruses. Makes sense to me. x

 

[Alsteven]

...Of course no-one will ever get any rock solid evidence of a link between MMR vaccine and T1 diabetes or Autism or any other life long detrimental health problem. It would be catastrophic to drug companies and Governments worldwide!!

 

[Toms mum]

Tom is 15, he was diagnosed Type 1, 6 months ago a few days after having what we thought was a sickness bug and i had plied him with glucose drinks to build him up during it (really helpful!!!)
We had already made the appointment at the doctors because hed been going to the loo alot during the night and just drank water all the time.
He was forceps birth, had all his childhood jabs, had mild chicken pox aged around 4 and only really used to get a general cold at most.
His father was diagnosed as Type 1 at the age of 18, and he has a very strong family history of either Type 1 or 2.
so ive always been aware of it since the day I knew I was pregnant and really would have loved a test or something to have been available, no one (medical professionals) has ever been interested in it ... I mean not like its life threatening or anything !!!!!

 

[cazmumto4]

Hi, I also have 4 children-3 boys and one girl.eldest(10,boy) has cystic fibrosis,daughter,7,diagnosed with t1 last month,5 yr old son has had t1 since he was 2 and is on a pump, last but not least 4 yr old boy who is ok.although I am worried about his behaviour,

At first I just thought he was the youngest in the house and now the only one who is well but now I am worried about attention disorders and he sees gp next wk. My 5 yr old with t1 had a history of health problems from birth-sleep apnoea,bronchillitis,asthma,tonsillitis,chicken pox,his sleep apnoea caused him to completely stop breathing at 5 wks and I had to give him cpr, how he survived it I do not know.he was like a floppy bluey,grey doll.uhhh! Anyway,he has another viral infection at the mo,although his lungs are "clear" his cough is awful and sounds worse than my son with cystic fibrosis!

One other thing,when he has a low hypo-say 1.2 -1,7 he has trouble breathing and goes a little blue around the mouth? Does anyone else have this? My daughter was healthy until about for then she had stomach virus of the century and seems to get all viruses going .also for about 18 months she appeared to have urine infection symptoms and wet the bed. but I took her to a and e one day when I checked her bgs with my sons monitor .she was 15.5, they said it was an infection as her bloods came back ok and no ketones .I said it was pre diabetes and it turns out I was right.

Has anyone seen the life of twins on bbc 3 (i think) one has t1 and the other doesnt and i think they are following them to try and find the link. Phew! That was a long one, sorry if you got bored half way!!!