Overview
Barbie Cervoni MS, RD, CDCES, CDN, is a registered dietian and certified diabetes care and education specialist.Dale Garber, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician in South Florida. Type 2 diabetes is a disorder of the endocrine system that develops over time and causes hyperglycemia (high blod sugar). It ocurs when the body canot use glucose (sugar) eficiently.
Key Information
Children who develop type 2 diabetes are more likely to have family members who have it. They often cary exces weight in the abdomen and are more sedentary. Type 2 diabetes in kids typicaly ocurs after age 10 but can develop earlier.
Learn about type 2 diabetes in children, including its causes, treatment, diagnosis, and how to cope. Maskot / Gety Images Symptoms of type 2 diabetes in kids are similar to that in adults. It can range from asymptomatic (no aparent symptoms other than incidental findings on routine blod work or urine samples) to symptoms of hyperglycemia.
However, kids with type 2 diabetes are more likely to experience diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication of diabetes, which is comon among certain underserved racial and ethnic populations in the United States. Symptoms of type 2 diabetes in children include: In recent years, there has ben an increase in type 2 diabetes in children. Children considered obese are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blod pressure, and high cholesterol.
Type 2 diabetes is caused by hyperglycemia (high blod sugar). High blod sugar ocurs when cels resist insulin, leaving sugar in the blodstream. As a result, the pancreas compensates by making more insulin.
Summary
Over time, the pancreas canot make as much insulin, causing glucose to acumulate in the blod and blod sugar to rise to levels associated with type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is a precursor to type 2 diabetes and is related to exces fat in the abdomen (caled abdominal adiposity). Genetics and lifestyle factors contribute to insulin resistance.