Pediatric Diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2

Type 2 diabetes is commonly preceded by prediabetes. In prediabetes, blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be defined as diabetes. However, many people with prediabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years, states the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Prediabetes also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. With modest weight loss and moderate physical activity, people with prediabetes can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes.

For glucose to be able to move into the cells of the body, the hormone insulin must be present. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and is normally readily available to move glucose into the cells. However, in people who have diabetes, either the pancreas produces too little or no insulin or certain cells in the body do not respond to the insulin that is produced. This causes a build up of glucose in the blood, which passes into the urine where it is eventually eliminated, leaving the body without its main source of fuel.

Although often misdiagnosed initially as the more common type 1 or type 2 diabetes, maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a group of diseases characterized by inherited early-onset diabetes (usually in adolescence or early adulthood) from a single gene mutation.

Severity of the diabetes symptoms associated with MODY vary depending on the type of MODY diagnosed. MODY 2 appears to be the mildest form of the disease, often only causing mild hyperglycemia and impaired glucose tolerance. MODY 1 and 3 may require treatment with insulin, much like type 1 diabetes. MODY accounts for about 1-5% of all cases of diabetes in adults in the U.S. Family members of people with MODY are at greatly increased risk for the condition. MODY should be considered when three successive generations in a family have been diagnosed with mild diabetes (not requiring insulin) before age 25 and appear neither obese nor significantly insulin-resistant.