Dr. Richard A. Guthrie, M.D.

The symptoms of diabetes in children is about the same as in adults though more severe. The most prominent symptoms are Polyuria (over production of urine), Polydipsia ( increased thirst) & Polyphagia (overly hungry usually associated with wt. loss). These are the BIG 3. Other symptoms are dehydration, fatigue, dry skin, rapid breathing & some level of loss of brain power leading eventually to coma. If you suspect any of these, you should see a Physician ASAP since neglect results these symptoms can get worse leading to coma & death. Diagnosis is based on symptoms, a simple urine test, a simple blood test for sugar level in the blood or a test called Hemoglobin A1c (abbreviated HbA1c). The latter test measures the amount of sugar that has been in the blood stream over the last 3 mo. & can be done on very little blood in some physicians offices. If you suspect diabetes don't put it off. Get to your Dr. or an ER very soon . I hope you are wrong & he or she doesn't have diabetes but it can be treated & controlled. I have had it foe 27 years & have learned to live a fully normal life. Your child can also do so.

There are several kinds of thyroid disease with different symptoms. 1) Hypothyroid- Thyroid hormone is the hormone that stokes the furnace & keeps organs functioning. If it is low, symptoms are those of organs not function well. Everything slows down. The heart slows, there is lack of energy, the brain is slow to react so thinking & speech are slow. Other organs slow down as well. If untreated, organs will fail & edema of extremities will develop, skin will get dry & thick and death can occur. 2) hyperthyroid is the opposite. There is too much thyroid hormone & everything goes too fast. Heart rater is high & may fail. You are agitated & nervous & lose wt. in spite of eating more. Both of these are life threatening & easily treated, so if you suspect either soo a physician right away. 3) Thyroid gland enlargement with perhaps nodules or masses. This needs to be attended to since some of these masses or nodules can be malignant. If caught early they can be removed with cure. If treatment is delayed some of these masses can metastasize & be fatal. Please see a physician if you suspect you have thyroid disease.

You cannot test yourself for thyroid disease. There are 2 things to do if you suspect thyroid disease. See a competent physician with expertise in thyroid disease & explain your symptoms. The physician should the feel your thyroid area for masses or nodules or enlargement. If found the further testing with ultrasound & maybe radioactive iodine. If no masses are found by touch the lab tests are needed. First to be done is a blood test for thyroid hormone (FreeT4) and pituitary stimulating hormone (TSH). If the thyroid is enlarged then a test for antibodies to the thyroid should be done to rule out an inflammatory disease that may be destroying the gland. If you do have thyroid disease there is medicine that is cheap & easy to take but is by prescription, so you need to see a physician.

Thyroid disease is detected the same way in children & adults. 1) see a physician and explain the symptoms. The Physician should then palpate the thyroid gland area for enlargement, nodules or tumors. If found then ultrasound or a radioactive iodine scan may be needed. 2) if no masses or nodules found the blood test of thyroid & pituitary function is needed ( Free T4 & TSH). If the gland is enlarged the physician may also want to measure thyroid antibodies to rule out or confirm Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an auto-immune disease that tries to destroy the gland. This is the most common cause of thyroid disease in children & needs treatment which is simple-a pill once a day. So see a Dr. preferably a Pediatric Endocrinologist.

Maybe. Type 2 diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance associated usually with overweight. By limiting calorie intake and exercising with wt. loss, it will improve and you may not need meds. You still have diabetes since you have the inheritance but you may be able to control it with diet, exercise, and wt. loss. Or it may be controlled with a single drug. Metformin is a very cheap drug with very few side effects and may have several benefits such as control of blood sugar, decreased appetite thus controlling appetite and has recently been shown to prevent or slow some cancers. A recent study shows that it may also slow mental decline so maybe we should put it in the water supply and we could all benefit.
Good luck!!

There is no food you should completely eliminate but follow St. Paul's advice & be temperate in all things. If you are overwt. then limit portion sizes. It will help if you limit or eliminate foods with high sugar (sugary deserts, candy bars, sweetened drinks, prepared foods with high fructose corn syrup, etc. Fruits are good but some have more sugar than others. Grapes are very high in sugar as are bananas, oranges, grapefruit, mangoes, etc while apples & similar fruit are low in sugar. Fruit juices have high sugar content so eat the fruit but avoid the free juices. The fruit itself contains the fruit fiber that will slow the absorption of the sugar. Artificial sweeteners have been given a bad rape by the sugar industry but they are OK. If you need to lose wt. limiting fats may help as the have more calories per measure than carbohydrates & protein. Mainly though just watch the portion sizes, avoid concentrated sweets and exercise!!

The symptoms of thyroid disease are about the same in males & females except that women may have menstrual abnormalities which men, of course, can not. There are several types of thyroid abnormalities: hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, benign thyroid nodules and malignant nodules. I don't know which of these you are asking about but I will concentrate on hyper & hypo. Hypothyroid or low thyroid is the most common & more common in women than in men. It can have several causes but is most commonly caused by an autoimmune effect in that the immune system attacks the cells of the thyroid & kills them. The thyroid may then enlarge as it tries to remain functional. This enlargement we call a goiter. When the thyroid can no longer compensate for the destruction , all bodily functions slow down from lack of the hormone needed to stoke the furnace. Heart rate slows as does the gut causing constipation. You may feel very tired and draggy. If the problem continues the brain may be affected & thinking & reasoning suffer. There may be skin changes & leg swelling. There are other symptoms but if you have the early ones see a Dr because you can be treated & avoid permanent damage. Hyperthyroid is too much thyroid the opposite of hypo or low. So the symptoms are the opposite. All organ functions speed up. Heart rate increases, gut goes too fast & may cause diarrhea. You can't sit still & feel hyper pepped up & then fatigue easily. You are hungry & eat more but still loser wt. This can cause permanent damage of the heart with failure & even be fatal. Again see a physician since this also can e treated with no lasting effects.

You should see a board certified or board eligible pediatric endocrinologist. Since 8 yr old children have few hormones until puberty, it would be unusual that he has a hormone problem. Children do have thyroid problems & they can have growth hormone deficiency & not grow well. I not sure what you suspect but see a pediatric endocrinologist who should be able to help you.

There IS no BEST breakfast. There are some things to avoid, however. Avoid sugary cereals. Rather, eat a high fiber cereal & add an artificial sweetener rather than sugar. There should be protein in the breakfast. Protein can be found in milk, eggs, breakfast meats, etc. Avoid sugary juices. Coffee is okay, & new data indicates it may be beneficial. Toast is okay, but don't add jelly or jam. The most important thing is to follow St. Paul's advice: "Be temperate in all things." And see a dietician who can develop a meal plan for you.

There are many ways to bring down sugar & this question is difficult to answer with more data such as "are you type 1 or type 2? Do you need to lose wt.? etc. But here is a general answer: Insulin intravenously is the quickest way to bring it down & the second quickest way is insulin under the skin. Fasting & exercise will help but probably not normalize the blood sugar if it is real high. The oral or injectable meds for Type 2 diabetes will help but again will not bring a really high BS to normal & these drugs take time. Most important: SEE a DR. and get the proper treatment since leaving the BS high can cause many complications and even early death. So don't put it off. SEE a physician right away.

This is a hard question to answer because it depends on the time of day it is measured & how close & how much & what kind of food has been eaten before the measurement. Here are some accepted values: Fasting 70-100 mg/dl (a value over 126 is diagnostic for diabetes.) After meals a value of 80-125 is normal though there is a lot of leeway as this value depends on how long after the meal is taken & how much & what was eaten. A high carbohydrate intake will give a higher value than a high protein &/or fatty meal. For Fasting a value less that 100 is normal. A value 100-125 is called Pre-diabetes & a value 126 or greater is diabetes. Get a fasting value & if normal OK. If abnormal >100 get a value by a glucose tolerance test or 1-2hrs after drinking a liquid test meal. The fasting though will probably tell you what you want to know.

YES it does. In general, exercise lowers blood sugar (BG) & is one of the best ways to lower it. There are exceptions however when exercise can raise BG. The lowering of BG by exercise can occur with the exercise or several hours after. Athletes who play football or basketball at night can sometimes have low BG during the night. The reason for this is that during the exercise the athlete uses up the stored sugar in the liver & several hours later the liver tries to replete it since it is needed for emergencies. In this instance eat a big snack before going to bed so the liver has carbohydrate available to store.

This would be a long & complicated answer. I would also need more information about your age, body weight, how long you have had diabetes, etc. In general treatment is 1) diet such as limiting concentrated sweets, & eating the amount need for wt. loss or for maintaining your wt. if wt. now normal for Ht. 2) exercise on a regular basis 3) medication. There are now about 20 meds. available for treatment in several classes. One or more of these is best left to your physician as he or she has the information to tailor the proper med to your particular needs. 4) monitor your blood sugar regularly and 5) get your HbA1c checked regularly. Please see a board certified Diabetes educator (a CME) for more info & for treatment specific to your circumstances.

Thyroid disease is usually an autoimmune phenomena & is not affected by diet. It is a hereditary problem. I don't know of any food that will affect the thyroid gland.

There are none you need to completely avoid. Some are higher in calories & sugar than others so you should follow St. Paul's advice "Be temperate (moderate) in all things). Fruits with a sugar content include oranges, grapefruit, bananas, mangos & grapes. Eating the fruit itself rather than the juice is better since you will get some fiber that will help slow the absorption of the sugar. Apples, pears & related fruits are lower in sugar content (especially glucose) & contain more fructose that will not effect your blood sugar. Fructose does have calories so if you are trying to lose wt. the calories are still there. Please see a dietician who can give you a list of the sugar & calorie content a longer list of fruits than I have space for here. Good luck!

God and nature!! T2DM is a genetic disease (that's why I say God) and an environmental disease with resistance to the action of insulin because of factors such as diet, obesity, inactivity, high cholesterol, etc. We can't change the genetics, but we can alter the environmental factors, so go to it.

The answer is Yes & NO. Diabetes is 1st of all an inherited disease. We can't change our genetics so in that sense it never can be cured. But there is also an environmental component such as obesity. Losing weight will make the diabetes easier to control & in many instances blood sugar will return to normal. This looks like diabetes has been reversed. But the genetic component is still there and if you gain the wt. back "here comes the diabetes back" often worse than it was the first time. You can't change the genetics but you can control the environmental factors so get to it.

Hypothyroid cannot be cured. It is due to destruction of the thyroid producing cells in the thyroid gland & like most other organs it cannot regenerate. But the treatment is easy. One pill a day & once or twice a year get your thyroid (free T4) & TSH checked then adjust you thyroid dose if needed. I have had hypothyroid for 26 years & its no big deal to treat. Don't stop treatment as the consequences of remaing low on thyroid severe to the heart, brain & other organs. Take your pill & be thankful you have it.

Most fruits are OK to eat as long as they are not eaten in excess. "Be moderate in all things" the Bible says. A good rule. Grapes are high in sugar-that's why we make wine from grapes not avacados. So go easy on the grapes. Apples are good as they are low in sucrose (regular sugar). Bananas are between grapes & apples in sugar content. Mangoes are very high in sugar but they are SOOO good. Eat them but go easy. Oranges are fairly high in sugar but can be eaten. Avoid much orange juice though because it is low in fiber & thus the sugar is more quickly absorbed. I once thought grapefruit juice would give less elevation of blood sugar so I tried a comparison (I have diabetes too) & I found that it raised my blood sugar as much as orange juice did so now I avoid both. A dietician can get you a list of sugar content of a whole list of fruits. Fruits are good for you so get a list, be moderate in intake & enjoy them.

You should see a pediatric endocrinologist. There are few of them so you may have to travel to find one but they are specially trained in treating diabetes in children and well worth the time & expense. The American Diabetes Association has a list of them with names, address, phone # etc. Go to ADA.org & they can help you find a qualified pediatric Endocrinologist close to you.