The Diabetes diagnosis process for kids

My daughter age 7 has recently been tested for diabetes. They tested her A1C which was normal. They also tested her antibodies ( insulin, IA-2 and GAD65). insulin nad IA-2 was normal; however the GAD65 was high. Does anyone know what this means? Please explain.

Hey Dlinda,
GAD65, is just one of the antibodies that show up in Type 1 Diabetes. They don’t use it to diagnose though, it just shows predisposition, or confirms the type of diabetes. They don’t use the A1c test either, because it’s not sensitive enough.

The question you need to ask is, what was her blood sugar at the lab. If the fasting is above 126 or the random blood sugar is above 200 WITH SYMPTOMS, then they diagnose diabetes. All these tests should be confirmed on another day. They can also do a glucose tolerance test to see if the blood sugar is above 200, 2 hours after a large dose of glucose.

It’s good that your following up on lab work, but I would have a conversation with your daughter’s doctor, and he/she should be able to explain it better. I hope everything turn out OK, and at least if it is diabetes or prediabetes, at least you caught it early. She could have a longer honeymoon period if it’s treated early. Good luck to you and your daughter, and I hope this helps.

I truly appreciate the comments. I feel as though I am in a holding pattern waiting for the diagnosis to hit. The doctor did mention the possibilty of another auto-immunie disease. I could not find any information linking GAD65 with another disorder other than diabetes. We are doing some more testing- looking at her enzymes or her adrenal gland. Again- thank you for the support and information.