I work in a very small pediatrics office. In the last 8 days we have had 3 patients diagnosed with onset of type 1 diabetes. In the 7 years that i have worked there i can only count one or two other cases.
This is crazy!!
I have heard a theory that a virus may damage the pancreas in people who are genetically prone to developing diabetes. Is there any basis to this theory?
Do you think this should be reported? Its not an infectious disease, but I really think the public should know that for some reason there has been this influx. Am i overreacting? I guess it could just be coincidence....but i just cant stop thinking about it.
Yeah oops! Type I is auto-immune related and not obesity related. Sorry!
I think it was the "corn sugar infection" that made me scratch my head. Unless it's jokingly referring to kids eating too much fattening foods... my brain is cooked from too much studying, and appear to have lost my sense of humor...
Wow. I bet those numbers are only going to go up. Were the children overweight or obese? If so, it might be a high fructose corn sugar infection...
Um...we're talking type 1, not type 2.
OP--Three cannot really indicate an influx, even in a small office. I'd only say something along the lines of educating families about the general signs and symptoms of type 1 and type 2 if you are so inclined. I think alerting people to the possibility of a virus out there causing more DM type 1 than usual for your office is likely to cause more worry than awareness. It also may unnecessarily cause those already diagnosed with type 1 to be treated as carriers of some communicable disease. DM type 1 already makes a kid different enough from his peers.
Since you cannot say with confidence that these children had a virus causing their diabetes type 1, I think it would be a bad idea to worry parents with this idea. There is obviously enough trouble out there distinguishing between type 1 and type 2 diabetes (as we can see above), so giving parents with varying ability to understand medical knowledge this information about a virus causing type 1 DM is asking for more trouble than necessary. You cannot prevent the virus to my knowledge, if that is indeed the culprit, so giving this information before any diagnosis or suspicion of DM type 1 is unnecessary. It IS necessary that the parents recognize signs and symptoms of DM type 1 and know the difference between DM type 1 and DM type 2.
Something must have flown over my head because I'm so confused by the last 3 posts.
Anyway, is it really all that rare to have a child diagnosed with Type I diabetes? I'm actually more surprised that your doctor's office doesn't see more of it. I'm with the ones who say it's coincidence. Three kids doesn't seem like all that many. It's just that they happened to all get diagnosed at the same time. Maybe it has to do with all the halloween candy they ate last week.
I believe the number is something like 1 in 500 kids, can't seem to put my finger on that piece of info. But in my practice as a school nurse, that figure has been accurate. My last school had 900 students, 3 with type 1 diabetes. My current school is 400 students, 2 with type 1 diabetes. There's no reason for the whole office to be shocked and stunned. It's a little odd that they would all be diagnosed within a few weeks of each other, but really, you'd expect in a pediatric practice of 1500 children that there would be AT LEAST 3 with diabetes.
If this is a smallish town or city it may be a case of parents talking...... Ex: Little Susie is thirsty all the time......My friend at work said her nephew was thirsty all the time and he just got diagnosed with diabetes...... maybe I should take Susie to the Dr...... So a lot of kids get diagnosed at once instead of being spread out over months.
They were all our patients at a primary care office so they were not referred to us. All young children who came in for extreme thirst for the last few weeks.
We had the first patient diagnosed last week and it was a shock to the entire practice, and the physicians at that time commented that there hasnt been a dx in some time. Then we had one on Friday and another yesterday. I havent talked to the physicians yet but i definitely will. My nurse manager is aware, i just want to make sure that this is handled correctly.
Its likely a coincidence, but this has nothing to do with me being hyper-aware.
Actually, as a former nurse on a peds-endo unit, this is the perfect time of year for Peds Diabetes diagnoseses. You see most kids start back to school in Aug/Sept after being home for 3 months. Upon going back to school they are exposed to viruses and bacteria that they have not been exposed to in a while. Kids catch bronchitis (a common pre-cursor), or other diseases and their body, while fighing off the infectious disease their body decides to attach their own pancreas. Since most kids aren't actually diagnosed until 2-3 months after the onset of diabetes, Nov-Jan is the time of year we saw most of our new onsets. It wasn't uncommon during this time period for my unit to see over 10-12 cases of new onset diabetes a week.
Perhaps your clinic's staff could use an inservice on Type 1 diabetes?
Tell those parents to stop feeding their kids junk food
Actually Type 1 diabetes is not affected by what the pt ate prior to be diagnosed. I have seen children from very health/nutrition orientated diagnosed with Type 1. Typically Type 1 new onset children are not obese, in fact, at diagnoses, they are often emaciated, as they have often had a 10-30+ lb loss prior to being diagnosed.
Wow. I bet those numbers are only going to go up. Were the children overweight or obese? If so, it might be a high fructose corn sugar infection...
Again, Type 1 is not at all like Type 2. Most kids aren't overweight/obese. And there is no such thing as a high fructose corn sugar infection. Please.
thinkertdm
174 Posts
I think it was the "corn sugar infection" that made me scratch my head. Unless it's jokingly referring to kids eating too much fattening foods... my brain is cooked from too much studying, and appear to have lost my sense of humor...