How to recognize it?
Small children cannot yet (clearly) voice their complaints. But you will often notice that they are sick at their behavior. In addition, the nature of the disease is usually not very clear. For this reason, it is recommended that a doctor examine every child with lasting symptoms from head to toe.
Some symptoms may indicate diabetes:
- Your child is very thirsty and has to urinate often;
- Your child has been clean for a while, but he is starting to have small accidents again;
- Your child is tired, complains of stomach aches and is losing weight;
- In a baby, respiratory distress (resembling an asthma attack) is sometimes the only sign of diabetes.
How is the diagnosis made?
If the doctor thinks you have diabetes, he or she will check your child’s urine and / or do a quick finger test (small prick). If these tests show diabetes, a blood test is taken to determine the level of sugar (glucose). If your child’s blood sugar level has increased, the doctor will send you directly to the hospital for further tests and to start treatment.
After that ?
Treatment is always started in the hospital because the blood sugar can go out of control very quickly in a small child. He can quickly become dehydrated and fall into a coma due to acidification of the blood (ketoacidosis). The doctors are not going to wait, and they will hospitalize the child immediately.
At the hospital, she will be given an infusion of fluids and salts. Insulin treatment will be started by infusion or by injections under the skin (subcutaneous injections).
Diabetes and its treatment will be explained extensively to parents and children. Usually, hospitalization lasts about a week after the diagnosis of diabetes.
Want to know more?
- Urinalysis explained to children – Plaster
- The hospital explained to children – Plaster
- The injections (blood test and infusion) explained to children – plaster
- Type 1 diabetes – mongeneraliste.be – SSMG – Scientific Society of General Medicine
- Insulin pump – CHU Montreal
- Diabetes: intervention of mutuals for children and adolescents – INAMI – National Institute for Sickness and Invalidity Insurance