3-year-old with Type 2 diabetes youngest diagnosed in world

The girl, from a Hispanic family, was diagnosed in Houston, Texas, by Dr Michael Yafi, a paediatric endocrinologist with the University of Texas.

Commenting on the research findings, Annemarie Schalkwijk from VU University Medical Centre, said: “We showed that limits on access to outdoor space is associated with future childhood obesity although moderated by education level”.

After adjusting for certain parental influences as well as socioeconomic status, researchers discovered that no garden access was indeed linked to lower educated households and an increased risk of overweight or even obese children at the age of 7 by up to 38 percent. She was also in the top 5% for height and body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity.

In a case study presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Stockholm, the young patient presented with symptoms of excessive urination and thirst, but her health history was unremarkable. She was born full term with a weight of 3.2 kg. The parents were also obese but had no previous family history of diabetes, he said.

Experts reviewed the girl’s diet and took blood tests and found “poor family nutritional habits with uncontrolled counting of calories and fat”. She tested negative for antibodies that would reveal Type-1 diabetes.

“Many children and young people in the United Kingdom are not achieving the recommended target of 60 minutes activity each day and almost a third of all children in the United Kingdom are obese or overweight”.

The girl lost weight, which led to her blood sugar levels falling within the normal range.

Diabetes occurs when the body is unable to transform sugar, or glucose, into energy, leading to high concentrations of sugar in the blood.

Dr Yafi said: “Based on symptoms, physical findings of obesity and laboratory results, the diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes was made”.

‘The incidence of type 2 diabetes has increased dramatically worldwide in children due to the epidemic of child obesity.

“This highlights how important it is that children get a healthy start to life, which includes a healthy diet and regular exercise, both to prevent ill-health in childhood but also to reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and other serious health conditions much later in life”.

Children first began to be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the United Kingdom in 2000 where cases as young as nine were seen, and doctors say in recent years they have seen cases as young as seven.

The numbers are believed to be rising.

“But there are a small number – probably less than 100 – children aged under 10 in the United Kingdom who have Type 2 diabetes”.