Diabetes mellitus in children

Diabetes mellitus in children, unfortunately, has long ceased to be an exception to the rules. This endocrine disease in childhood develops particularly quickly and poses a considerable threat to the growing organism. That is why it is important to identify diabetes in the earliest stages, for which it is necessary to have an idea of the clinical picture of this serious disease. Enlightened and attentive parents will certainly try to prevent the development of the disease or at least in time to notice it and begin adequate treatment.

Diabetes mellitus: symptoms in children

The onset of the disease is difficult not to notice, since the behavior of the child immediately greatly changes. The main signs of diabetes in children are:

• Unnatural thirst. The child can not cope with thirst and dry mouth. A large amount of liquid is drunk a day;
• Frequent urination. Children who have diabetes, begin to go to the toilet more often, and this happens not only during the day, but also repeatedly at night. Preschool children are characterized by urinary incontinence during sleep;
• Urine contains sugar. It is easy to determine even at home: drying drops of urine make the sheets sticky, washed laundry creates the impression of starched;
• Reducing the weight of the child against the background of a constant feeling of hunger and using the usual, if not larger, amount of food;
• Long-term healing of scratches and other wounds on the skin and mucous membranes. Pustular eruptions and fungal lesions may persist, despite appropriate treatment;
• Persistent itching;
• Rapid fatigue, lethargy, apathy, lack of mobility, drowsiness;
• There may be severe headaches or abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting;
• The appearance of the smell of acetone or wet apples from the mouth and the baby's skin, the taste of iron in the mouth.

The presence of even a few signs from the list must necessarily alert the adults. To precisely define diabetes mellitus it is possible only with the help of laboratory diagnostics of blood and urine. Do not delay the visit to the doctor - you can lose precious time, the price of which - the life of the child.

The difficulty of pre-hospital determination of diabetes in children at an early stage is that this disease is so insidious that it is always masked for other, usually infectious diseases and adenovirus infections. Therefore, you must always be very careful to discover the disease that begins before it can cause irreparable harm to the child's body.

Diabetes mellitus in children: a risk group

This disease can occur at any age, a terrible diagnosis is sometimes put right in the hospital. The most at risk are those who have blood relatives who are ill with this disease. Also, the risk group includes large newborns, with a body weight of more than 4 kilograms. All these children are under special control from birth. Although the presence of these prerequisites does not mean that the child must necessarily fall ill. It happens that the disease simply does not have that push that can trigger its beginning. So, most often diabetes in children begins to develop after the transfer of acute infection (such as, for example, chicken pox, influenza, rubella, measles, mumps, etc.). The role of the trigger mechanism can play and excessive psychic or physical trauma, any strong load or overexertion.

Diabetes mellitus in children: prevention

Here a special place is taken by dispensary supervision of children at risk, so as not to give the disease, if it does develop, cause severe harm to the body, and make the child's life as comfortable and safe as possible. These children should always follow a diet with a restriction of sweets. Adults should make every effort to level out situations that are capable of activating the disease.