Childhood Diabetes on the Rise

Sadly, children as young as six years old are now being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at a more rapid rate than ever before. Doctors are blaming obesity for the increase being seen in newly diagnosed diabetic children.

Of course, some doctors often want to point the finger at the parents who allow their children to consume “junk food” for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. The only problem with that theory is the it takes more than “junk food” for a person to develop diabetes. The lack of a healthy diet and regular exercise does indeed at to the risk factor for developing diabetes but it is not the primary cause especially in children

Children with diabetes usually always have a parent or grandparent who has/had diabetes it is hereditary. That does not mean that because a child’s parent or grandparent has/had diabetics that the child will become diabetic. It is all in the genes and how they are distributed during the fetal development.

Obesity in children has been a problem for the past decade and parents who are concerned about their child developing diabetes should take the following steps to help lower the risk. Meals and snacks should be well balanced and healthy. Children should get exercise on a daily basis whether it is riding their bike for 30 minutes or walking three blocks to and from a friend’s house. Children get a lot more exercise when the amount of TV, computer and video game time is limited. If parents feed their children healthy foods and leave the “junk food” for an occasional outing or treat and encourage them or even take the time to exercise with them the risk of them developing diabetes at such a young age due to the increase obesity risk factor can be cut drastically.