How to Detect Diabetes in Children

Many parents worry that their children might have diabetes (among other things). It's a legitimate worry as more and more children are being diagnosed with it at younger and younger ages.

Three common things could mean diabetes in your child and if any are happening, they should be followed with a diabetes blood sugar level test.

1. Urinating a lot (in both quantity and frequency)
2. Drinking a lot of liquids
3. Losing weight

Any of these three symptoms can mean diabetes, but if more than one is occurring, it's a sure sign that something is wrong. Most often, these symptoms will be combined with tiredness or irritability.

When these diabetic symptoms occur, most doctors will immediately want to do a urine glucose test. This is a simple test that looks for glucose (sugars) in the urine. This is a preliminary sign of diabetes and tells the doctor that more testing is important and should be done quickly.




While the urine glucose test doesn't always mean diabetes, it's a good indicator and is simple to do, so it's usually the first step. Blood tests usually follow.

Early diabetes symptoms are often ignored because parents believe they're part of something else or just "phases." This can be true, of course, but if you have any concern at all, you should talk to a pediatrician about them. Even if it turns out to be nothing (thankfully), it's better to know that then just make a guess.