Convincing Family to get a Toddler Tested

#1

Hi Folks,

This is my first post and I am new to the forum. I have a concern that I thought some of you may be able to chime in on and give me some good advice on. A little backround on me first might be in order.

I was diagnosed with diabetes on june 12th 2009. After being wrongly diagnostic with a sinus infection for over 6 months and then getting a second opinion. (all while loosing 46lbs and having all the symptoms.) I was finally hospitalized in DKA and came out after 5 days a type 1 diabetic. After some family history it turns out that it seems to skip generations in my family and I had a great aunt a great uncle and who knows who else going back die of diabetes and one aunt still alive with it. Ive been pretty good with a a1c of 6.1 to 6.5 over the past few years (my a1c was 14.7 when I was hospitalized)

My problem starts here. after being diagnosed my father started to learn about diabetes and recognizing some of the symptoms got himself checked out at my request. pre-diabetic and now taking care of himself things are going well. My brother a police offer is a different story. Shows all the signs frequent urination thirst loss of muscle mass... supposedly got checked out.Says everything is fine for now butIi continue to pester him for his "results". Fast forward march 20th 2010, my niece Mckenna is born. My first concern is that she could possible get it at some point. I hope I can bear the cross of this curse so she doesn't have to ever deal with it. As she has gotten older, I have started to notice things that looking back on my own childhood, I can relate to maybe what my doctors as a child or my parents could have recognized as prediabetic tendencies.. I may be over paranoid Im not sure. How would you approach a family member with a new child to get them tested. I know if I had a child, I would have them tested regularly to ensure that we catch it as early as possible ( as I know the complications I have I would not wish on anyone.)

I want him to realize that catching it early and having her tested are as important as developing her ability to walk and talk. she has some strange health issues that I would personally related to diabetes that I think maybe her doctors dont make the connection with. Further complicating things, his wife is an ex-jehovahs witness who still has a strong distrust of modern day medicine.

All comments welcome,
Jeremy

#2

Hi Jeremy, difficult situation. The only thing that I can think of is to have a private and frank talk with the father. You could suggest a test with your meter to see what sort of blood glucose she has, say an hour after eating. Just for the fun of it I tested my husband to see what we'd get and guess what, he had pre-diabetes. We are very happy to know and are dealing with it. Good luck.

#3

Difficult situation without a great answer. First you should explain the chance of the child developing T1. The ADA website explains the risks pretty well:

"In general, if you are a man with type 1 diabetes, the odds of your child getting diabetes are 1 in 17. If you are a woman with type 1 diabetes and your child was born before you were 25, your child’s risk is 1 in 25; if your child was born after you turned 25, your child’s risk is 1 in 100.

Your child’s risk is doubled if you developed diabetes before age 11. If both you and your partner have type 1 diabetes, the risk is between 1 in 10 and 1 in 4."

As you can see the risk is there, but it is low. Second you would want to tell the parents the symptoms associated with T1 so that if they see them they can have their child treated. Also, if the parents are not interested, then there is nothing you can do. That simple, parents are the boss.

The easiest way is to test the child’s BG every once in a while (with parent’s consent). The other option is to have the child entered into the Diabetes trialnet research study: http://www.diabetestrialnet.org/.

#4

There is a problem with these stats from the ADA, because they do not include the many people with slow-onset autoimmune diabetes who, as adults, are misdiagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes. The odds are undoubtedly much higher if ALL people with autoimmune diabetes are included.

#5

Hi Jeremy, I know where you're coming from. At Christmas I watched my family of almost all T2 diabetics stuffing the 2 year old with all sorts of junk food. She's already obese, and they should all know better! But none of them wants to even face their own reality, let alone a baby's. Some of the blame goes to their doctors, they are not getting good information. But also they don't want to hear it.