Two of my three sons are type 1 diabetic. My oldest was diagnosed at 4 and is now 10, my youngest was diagnosed at 11 months and is now four. How many of you have more than one of your kids that are diabetic?? I have only come across one other family in the state where I live, and I am just curious.
My daughter was diagnosed 8 months ago, a month after she turned 7. That was October. In December my 5-year-old son started expressing thirstiness a lot. He’s been tested medically, and I have tested him on occasions. Today was a little scary. He registered 151 when I tested him at a thirsty time. He had shortly before eaten some homemade bread & earlier had had some sugar cookies, and he’d just come back from playing on his bike ( I guess exercise can elevate or decrease sugars). 151 scared me. I took it later & it was down some. Just before he ate supper it was about 103. Is 151 (soon after eating) a suspicious number? Also, I know there is a margin for error with the measuring.
He seems to feel fine except for the frequent thirst, which he expresses emphatically. I have wondered if he is just being dramatic (he also is occasionally “starved”) but I think by now he’d have tired of it. One might wonder if he is mimicking his sister, but she really doesn’t get thirsty a lot, and the short time she showed that symptom early on, I don’t think he noticed much.
I am so sorry both of yours have it. Was it easy to tell that the second had it?
I would definately keep an eye on his symptoms, but to be accurate if does need to be a fasting blood glucose test. When my boys were diagnosed, they were both in the 600’s.
I have one son that is not diabetic, and we test him when he seems tired or thirsty, buit so far he has no signs. We actually had the whole family go in to have some blood drawn for a study that the University of Utah is doing on genetics and diabetes. They could have told us if our middle son had the genetic markers for diabetes, but we chose not to find out. I guess I would rather not worry and if the time comes, we definately know how to take care of it.
I had no idea whatsoever that my second son was diabetic. We were actually on vacation and he just kept getting more and more sick. We drove home and went to the after hours pediatrician thinking he had an ear infection or strep. When the Dr. couldn’t find anything they wanted to test for a urinary tract infection. When the Dr. come in and said there was sugar in the urine, my whole life changed. When you are prepared for the diagnosis it is a lot easier to take.
There is just something that my husband and I put together genectically that makes this happen. I actually went and had my tubes tied so we wouldn’t have another child that would have to deal with this for the rest of their lives.
I sort of do. My daughter is 16 and was diagnosed at 10 and her mother (my ex wife) has a seven year old diagnosed at 18 months. Her name is Lara and because we are all in this together, she spends a lot of time with me and I wrote the book Lara Takes Charge for her. Both are on pumps.
I have five boys and my 15 year old was diagnosed with type 1 at 7. I test the younger boys every once in awhile and my 11 year old has participated in a sibling screening at CHOC Orange County ( he was negative for the antibodies). Last Friday my six year old asked me to test him and he came up 347. We watched it with our endo over the weekend and had an A1C done on Monday. The results were in the “normal” range but his fasting and after meal blood sugars are 190 and above. Our doctor said this is just very early in the development of the disease and we are waiting for the results of the blood panel for an official diagnosis. I’m a wreck. He’s getting a cold and his sugars are steadily increasing. Its like i’m watching this happen and there is nothing I can do.
I have 5 children and this often crosses my minds…I wonder who is next. We currently don’t have more than one, but I have tested one of my daughters a couple of times…holding my breath each time. Our endo stated that ANY reading over 200 is a diagnosis for diabetes. So far we haven’t seen any that high in our others.
The university of Minnesota is having a “seminar” this weekend where my other kids can be tested for the antibodies. We decided it’s better not to know than wonder and worry about something that’s not totally definitive, so we’ll pass. If another one of our children get this disease, then we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
You might look at this site…they have 3 in one family.
Thanks for writing the book!!!
I have many of my patients with one or more sibling with type1 diabetes also.The sad thing is when next child present in DkA,because though the mother ecognise the symptoms but she denies them till they come in DKA. But most mothers are great and bring the newly diagnose child early
Hi Jill,
Both of my daughters have Type I. They were diagnosed six month apart. My oldest was diagnosed a 4 and is now 7. My youngest was diagnosed right after her 3rd birthday and is now 5. I think the incidence of sibling diagnosis is rather low (I’ve seen a figure of 6% of Type I diagnoses are in siblings). I know that the weekend my youngest daughter was diagnosed, a family friend had their second child diagnosed as well. They are the only other family that I know personally with siblings diagnosed.
I posted earlier in the year about how my daughters’ blood sugars have a very weird tendency to converge, even when they eat entirely different meals. They are very often a few points from each other when we test. With only two children, it is almost easier for both of them to have the disease. They are built in support for each other and it is easier for us as parents to plan meals and purchase food.
Good to hear from another parent with more than one. Welcome to the site!
My child’s father is type 1, and his maternal grandfather and great aunt have type 1. He has 6 half siblings, and none of them have it. They range from 25 to 5 years old.
Both my sons are also type 1 as well as there dad. My oldest son Michael who is three was DX in May 2008 and my Owen who is 19 months was DX in July 2008.
My daughter Kacey was diagnosed back in July and she is 8…a month later I had her sister tested and she is 14. She was showing signs of thirst and frequent bathroom breaks and I wanted to make sure it was just because she was playing hard in hockey practice. Her A1c came back at a 6.5 …and the doctor brushed it off and told me she was fine. She’s had a couple elevated sugars… in the 150’s…and I told her I was going to continue checking her sugar at least once a month! That paranoid Mommy part of me was freaking out when she was showing symptoms that Kacey did and we didn’t pick up on them!
Your children are almost exactly the same ages as mine–Nate is 3 1/2, Eric (diagnosed 3 weeks ago) is 18 mos. Did either of your sons have repeated infections or illnesses prior to their diagnosis? Eric had virus after virus after virus all summer long, and Nate never caught it even once, which is weird when you realize they’re at the same daycare. The pediatric endo said that Type 1 is part genes, part viral–meaning, if you’re hit with a virus and you have a genetic predisposition for diabetes, the combination can create an autoimmune response that results in diabetes. So it makes me wonder whether the fact that Nate never once got sick means he’s safe. Guess I won’t know unless he develops it too.
My 2 kids had bronchitis when one was diagnosed. He was not getting better, was thirsty, tired and lost weight.
Thanks for the book! I read a friend’s copy, and it’s on my Amazon.com Christmas wish list for my son. It’s like the only D book that I really like for little kids (My son will be 3 next month). Thanks a bunch - will you write a few more?? 
So far I only have 1 daughter (age 7) and my husband who are Type 1. However - as of earlier this month we are keeping a close watch on our 3 year old. - she is showing some pre-diabetic signs - excessive thirst, excessive urination, some random moderate high BS. (147, 156 . . .) She has a cold/virus currently and DH and I were talking last night about how similar this feels to how it was before Willow was dx. Rather than going into details (it’s long!) about Willow’s dx - you can read my blog - shawlfamily5.blogspot.com. But I feel like her symptoms came on slow for a few months and then right before dx - when her pancreas just died out - she was really high - many HI readings on meter and her A1c was 14%. We keep praying that Haleigh (and our other daughter Ava) will not develop D - but if she does - at least she will be in a family who knows how to care and manage it. There are several people on another board who have multiple children with T1. PM me if you would like the link. Also my husband’s sister is Type 1 - she was dx at age 12 he was dx at age 24. So the likelihood is there that we could have more than 1 child dx.
What is so funny about all this is that when I was first pregnant with Willow (8 years ago) I asked my doc then and was told that it is very unlikely that any of our children will develop Type 1D. That the chances are olny slightly more than the general population. Not that that would have stopped us from having children, but I think it is interesting that the doctors told us t hat there really was no hereditary link. I do think now (7 years later) that the school of thought is different to the hereditary component. Just food for thought.
In the course of my job I have been reading up a lot on various health-related matters, and here are a couple of things that I’ve learned about Type 1 diabetes recently:
- there is a genetic component, most definitely
- some of the same genes that are relevant in Type 1 diabetes are also relevant in celiac disease–which means, if you’re a type 1 diabetic, you have a higher chance of having celiac than someone in the general population.
- A study in Finland found that children age 1 year + given 2000 IU of vitamin D reduced their likelihood of developing Type 1 diabetes by EIGHTY PERCENT. This was a study of 12000 kids followed over 30 years, so it’s pretty robust, especially given that Finland has one of the highest incidences of T1D anywhere in the world… and, not-so-coincidentally, is one of the places on the planet that gets the absolute least overall amount of UVB, which is the part of the UV spectrum that is responsible for stimulating production of vitamin D in the skin.
Moral of the story? If you have one kid with T1D, give the others vitamin D supplements and limit their exposure to gluten, unless/until you can do genetic testing for celiac. Or at least that’s my take-away.