My 13 year old son who was diagnosed with type 1 last year at 12 was a premature baby - 32 weeks gestation. He has no physical or intellectual issues because of his prematurity - he's a completely normal kid.
I saw a new doctor this week for my annual physical, and when reviewing my medical history, she said that she wasn't surprised that my son was type 1 because preemies have a higher risk for developing it. I have never heard this, and a quick google search didn't yield any results that supported that statement. Any validity to that statement that you're aware of?
If this statement was factually inaccurate, as I suspect, I think I'll keep looking for a new doctor.
Hi, I have heard many myths in 35 years of being around the T1 world, and I haven't seen any definitive science proving what activates the trigger. My oldest son was 12 and my next son was 25 and THEN, after that, I was 48 when diagnosed. Here are our birthweights: 1st - 8lbs 10oz. 2nd 8lbs 4oz. I weighed in at 9lbs 10oz!! So much for birth weight dx! In fact, I "heard" that bigger babies were at risk. Go figure!
Hello- I was a preemie born 6 weeks early but my mother did not have gestational diabetes. I was only 4lbs. I was diagnosed with T1 just before my 25th birthday and my doctor wasn't sure if there was any connection but did mention it. Not sure if this helps...
I was 6 weeks premature, diagnosed at 34 years of age. My parents are in their 80's and they do not have Diabetes but there are many close relatives and 3 cousins that are T1D's. we where
all born in the mid 50's.
I have never had a doctor tell me being premature caused me to have the Bete's...they have only
Thanks for the replies. My son is the only person in our family, including way extended family, who has type 1 (hoping and praying it stays that way). I’m sure we’ll never know why he’s the lucky one, but I did a lot of study on prematurity when my kids were born, and increased risk of type 1 diabetes was never something that I heard of being a potential issue. The doctor’s statement piqued my curiosity but also made me question whether this is the right doctor for me if she tosses stuff out there without medical evidence to support it.
After having a few doctors say really dumb things to me over the years, I am pretty critical of doctors who say things that have no basis in fact. A few years back I saw a doctor who asked if my boy/girl twins were identical. After pausing to make sure he wasn’t joking, I replied “uh, no” and he insisted I couldn’t really be sure of that without genetic testing. Yes, I’m pretty darn sure - no genetic testing required!
Not sure about that...I was full term 8lbs 6oz...got sick with the flu prior to diagnosis and that was how I was diagnosed. I think a genetic issue definately raises your risks, but there are no type 1's in my family,just a couple of type 2's a generation or so back. But honestly I don't think there is any real set definitive cause why this happened to any of us. My son is 16, and absolutely NO signs of being diabetic. Probably in all honesty this is caused by several factors.
Our neighbor's daughter was born very prematurely 26 years ago. She barely weighed a pound. She is not diabetic at this time, but I have an interesting observation that might be relevant if it is true that premature babies are at higher risk of diabetes. The baby girl was doing fine when she was finally brought home, but at about 9 months the doctors said she was too small and needed to eat more. Her mother complied, sticking a bottle in her mouth at every opportunity. The baby then refused to eat at all. Seriously. The doctors installed a feeding tube and had the mother feed the poor baby a bunch of Ensure 3 times a day. With all that crap in her stomach, she kept refusing to eat until she was 4 and it finally dawned on her that the other kids didn't have a tube and she didn't want one either. If it's a common thing for doctors to insist on force feeding premature babies, then I could see where there might be a problem for them later in life. This baby never did grow a lot. She's maybe 5 feet tall and naturally small...exactly like her mother.
I've even heard baby formula can be linked to diabetes...heard one time in passing on tv powdered baby formula was "linked" to diabetes. Who knows, but yeah I can certainly see your point with your theory. Putting a lot of strain on a immature little body to process those high caloric, high sugar forumulas.
I was quite premature, born at 28 weeks weighing 2 pounds, 6 ounces. I had a lot of problems after birth and spent weeks on a ventilator and months in the NICU. The only lasting complication I have is severe retinopathy of prematurity.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 at age 9. I have never heard of anything linking prematurity with Type 1, although I have sometimes wondered if all that stress as a baby somehow acted as my environmental trigger. I would guess, though, that the two are totally unrelated. I am the only Type 1 anywhere in my immediate or extended family, although all immediate family members have allergies of various sorts (as do I) and some extended family have other autoimmune conditions, so my guess is it's all genetics combined with bad luck!
Speaking of bottlefeeding... Another myth I've heard is that bottle feeding is the culprit. I breast fed both of my T1 babies until they drank out of a cup. No bottles ever.
I suspect there are probably different environmental "triggers" for different people, hence the trouble in pinning one exact "cause" down.
When I was a kid my pediatric endocrinologist told me that 95% of people with the genes for Type 1 never actually develop it. He said the development of Type 1 was having "the right genes and the bad luck to encounter something that triggered them."
The one other thing to remember is that antibodies start the autoimmune attack often YEARS before diagnosis (I've read antibodies can be detected up to 9 years prior to diagnosis). So the chances that a flu two months before diagnosis actually caused diabetes is pretty slim, although it may have been the tipping point between the remaining beta cells being able to control blood sugar and blood sugar going wildly out of control.
I was a full term baby at 7pounds 6 oz and I got Type 1. I've had 2 kids one was 4lbs 15 oz and the other was 5lb 6 oz. One is a Type 1 and the other isn't. I'm in the way of thinking that it's the genes and envotementral triggers. Both my girls were 6 weeks premature
