What should be done at the time of diabetes diagnosis to determine the type of diabetes?
It’s important to determine which type of diabetes is present at the time a child or teenager is diagnosed with diabetes. In lean, pre-teen children, it’s probably correct to assume that the young child has type 1 diabetes. However, in overweight teenagers, it may be hard to tell type 1 diabetes from type 2 diabetes. Who is at greater risk for type 1 or type 2 diabetes? Those more likely to have type 1 diabetes include younger children, Caucasian children, leaner children people with a short course of symptoms; and those who had diabetic ketoacidosis. Those more likely to have type 2 diabetes include older children, heavy children, people of African American, Hispanic, Asian American, or Native American descent; people with a longer course of symptoms of diabetes, a family history of diabetes occurring at an older age; and people with high blood pressure, high lipid levels or acanthosis nigricans. The diagnosis of type 1 versus type 2 is usually made on this clinical basis. However, fo
