TOPick (10/11/2021)(In Chinese)
【Children’s Diabetes】Frequent thirst and drinking water caused a sudden weight loss of 1/3; low fever for two weeks without relief, a 3-year-old girl was diagnosed with diabetes
Diabetes is silent. A 3-year-old girl was diagnosed with diabetes after she frequently went to the toilet because she was thirsty and lost one-third of her weight in 2 months. She needs continuous treatment. To date, the girl has to measure her blood sugar, take injections, and calculate the number of grams of carbohydrates she consumes every day due to type 1 diabetes. According to a pilot study on the incidence of fatty liver in patients with type 1 diabetes by the Children’s Diabetes Association, it was found that patients with type 1 diabetes have an increased chance of developing fatty liver as they age.
Summer, now 11 years old, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 3. Her father, Mr. Huang, said that Summer had a low-grade fever for 2 weeks due to roseola. Later, he found that Summer often drank water and went to the toilet, and even lost one-third of her weight. The family thought it was caused by loss of appetite after the fever, so they continued to observe her for 1 to 2 months.
She was only 3 years old at the time and was a little chubby, but later I touched her coccyx, which was very obvious with sections, like skin and bones.
Later, due to Summer’s rapid weight loss and bad breath, Huang’s father thought something was wrong and took her to see a general practitioner. After seeing five doctors, it was confirmed that Summer had type 1 diabetes and needed to be hospitalized immediately due to high blood sugar.
At that time, my finger blood sugar level was over 30 degrees, while a normal person’s level is around 5 to 7 degrees.
Huang’s father admitted that if he had no medical knowledge, he might have thought his daughter’s condition was normal and delayed seeing a doctor for 3 to 6 months because type 1 diabetes has no symptoms.
The chairman of the Children’s Diabetes Association, Ms. Zheng Fengliangqi, added that since general doctors do not anticipate that children will suffer from diabetes, it is easy for them to delay treatment, causing patients to suffer from diabetic ketoacidosis, and severe cases may have to be admitted to the intensive care unit.
Huang’s father revealed that after Summer was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, she had to check her blood sugar index regularly, even at 12:00, 3:00, and 6:00 in the morning, to ensure that the index was normal, otherwise she would easily lose consciousness due to low blood sugar. When she was a child, he had to arrange for his family to go to school every day to give his daughter an insulin injection. Currently, he also has to calculate the number of grams of carbohydrates he consumes in his daily diet.
The incidence of diabetes in children is on the rise
According to the Children’s Diabetes Association, the incidence of diabetes among children and adolescents in Hong Kong is on the rise. The number of patients with type 1 diabetes increased from 335 in 1997 to 2007 to 498 in 2008 to 2017. The number of patients with type 2 diabetes also increased exponentially, from 198 to 391.
The association’s pilot study on the prevalence of fatty liver disease in patients with type 1 diabetes also found that the risk of developing fatty liver disease increases with age. The study involved 60 patients with type 1 diabetes aged 8 and above, and found that the prevalence of fatty liver disease in patients under 18 was 3.6%, but in adult patients it was 15.6%, and in overweight/obese people it was as high as 36%. Pediatrician Dr. Zhou Zhongwu pointed out that the chance of developing fatty liver disease is more significant as the age of patients with type 1 diabetes increases or the disease progresses.
Endocrinologist and diabetes specialist Dr. Chen Nuo said that if a patient has fatty liver and diabetes, the chances of developing other complications in the future will increase, such as stroke, diabetic retinopathy, and kidney failure. 70% of type 2 diabetes patients in Hong Kong have fatty liver, so adults should get checked early, lose weight early before diabetes develops, and improve their health through exercise to avoid diabetes.