Causes of children's diabetes

Diabetes in children

When diabetes occurs in obese children it is usually type 1 diabetes. Most often it occurs in children under the age of 16, even in 90 to 95 % of cases. It is caused by the inability of the pancreas to produce hormone insulin that regulates the level of glucose in the blood. However, at that age even children with type 2 diabetes can be found. It is still not known why diabetes occurs in children, particularly in such early ages. Usually, it is considered that those children are genetically predisposed to the development of diabetes. Currently, there are various theories and speculations about the possible causes of diabetes in children.

Causes of diabetes in children

From some known sources the information is provided that children developed type 1 diabetes after they had some sort of viral disease or viral infections, such as mumps, measles or rubella, due to a strong flu or polio. In addition to this, diabetes occurred even after certain trauma. However, all these children had a genetic predisposition for diabetes. Some experts believe that there are environmental factors that may lead to the appearance of diabetes, 1 and 2. Diabetes occurs because of an unhealthy lifestyle, poor diet and poor food quality. This lifestyle leads to obesity and increased blood sugar levels. There is also a theory that climate affects the child and increases the risk of developing diabetes. It was observed that children who live in colder regions are more suffering from diabetes. Therefore, it is believed that the cold climate triggers the disease. However, this theory has not been proven yet.

Diabetes is definitely a genetic disease. Depending on which parent is suffering from diabetes, the probability of developing of diabetes in child can be determined. If only one parent has diabetes, the probability that the child will develop diabetes is 1 in 17 if the father is ill, and 1 in 25 if the mother is ill. But if both parents are ill, the possibility that a child becomes sick is one of the two. Some experts believe that in those children who have a genetic predisposition to develop diabetes the risk increases if they drink cow's milk in early childhood. But even this theory has not yet been proven. There is a theory, which is also not confirmed, that children can become ill from diabetes due to vaccination. Hemophilus vaccine particularly increases the risk of the disease. Possible disease in children who receive the vaccine is even in 26% of cases, of course, provided they have a genetic predisposition.