Worries of Second Child Getting Diabetes

[danielsmom]

Okay so now is my concern with my daughter...My son getting it was out of the blue.. what are the odds of the second child? We have no diabetic family members.. For those where both your children have been DX..is there family history? Now I"m going to worry about my 7 year old too.

Shirley
mommy to Daniel 10 dx 7/11/11

By the way where do I go to add signatures?

[2type1s]

My girls were diagnosed 8 years apart. It is VERY rare to have more than 1 child dx'd in a family. We have no great-grandparents, grandparents, neither parent, nor aunts, uncles, cousins with type 1. We did find out that my mom's cousin has a grandchild with type 1 (so that would be Zoe and morgan's 4th cousin (4th removed)....long way away~!)..I think that's right, their grandmother's cousin's, grandchild?

You can have your other child, and yourselves, tested through Trial Net. The blood test indicates if you or your children have the autoimmune markers for Type 1. I wish I had done it. Not that it would have stopped diabetes for Zoe, but because there may have been a way to prolong her pancreas or participate in research (which is what is happening now at Vanderbilt).

[LantusFiend]

Karla just created a thread about how to make a signature. http://forums.childrenwithdiabetes.c...ad.php?t=65364

As for risk to the second child, the odds are about 1 in 20 in his entire lifetime, but there are lots of things that could cause a researcher to adjust that risk to being smaller or greater, and for you personally, it's not the odds that matter so much as the yes he will or no he won't. And nobody knows for sure whether he will or won't.
When a second person in a family is diagnosed with diabetes, that second person has a much smaller risk of being very sick at diagnosis- it's usually caught earlier, because you're aware of the symptoms.

[Kaylas mom]

We do have two in our family but it was a blessing because we were able to catch Noah very early, so far we are just waiting.. he has impaired glucose tolerance but still mostly good numbers. Noah and Kayla are both antibody positive and we don't know about Nick yet. No one else in the family has T1 but lots of autoimmune issues on both sides of the family.

[skimom]

we have absolutely no history of T1 but a strong family history of autoimmune disorders. My oldest and youngest were diagnosed 2.5 years apart. Interestingly, they both have the same blood type. The child with the different blood type does not have T1 and We will not be getting her tested as we already know she is at higher risk and there is nothing we can do to stop it and we know what to look for

[NatBMomto4]

For some reason, I worry a lot about my daughter, who is 2 1/2...I asked our endo early on what her chances of developing it were, and she told us that she had a slightly higher chance now that she has a sibling with it, but the chances are still very small - I think (if my memory is as good as I like to think it is) she said the average child has a 2 in 100 chance, where Keira now has a 5 in 100 chance. She also said that although we could have her tested, she always recommends AGAINST it - she said there isn't anything anyone can do to stop it if it is going to happen, and the test does not tell you WHEN it will happen, so she said to just enjoy her and try not to worry. I don't want her tested - if it is going to happen, it is out of my hands. I do watch for signs, and I have tested her blood sugar twice - both times it was great. I think as parents, we are always going to worry...

[Melissata]

I also would not have wanted my daughter tested, and didn't really worry too much about it happening to her. With her disability I just couldn't imagine how we would cope, so I had to put it out of my mind. At that time they were doing trials with using small doses of insulin in hopes of preventing diabetes, but I found out years later that it was unsuccessful anyway. Her diagnosis was about 6 years later, and by that time she was two years past the age that her brother was diagnosed and I didn't even have it on my radar.

She is coming up on 10 years next month since diagnosis. The only diabetes in the family was my father's mother, and we are not certain that it was type 1, but she was on insulin.

[mom2Hanna]

I worry. And all 3 of my other kids enrolled in Trialnet. I would rather know and there are preventive studies. I worry the most about my little one because she reminds me of hanna at the same age. But I still enjoy her, I just tend to watchful when she is sick. I don't test her but I would if she ever displayed symptoms.

[Pauji5]

We don't have a family history of any type 1 diabetes....Kendall was diagnosed when she was 7 in 2007 and then Spencer was diagnosed this January 2011, a week before he turned 13. He was positive for 3 antibodies...

The boys ( also have a 15 year old) were offered to be tested when Kendall was diagnosed but I didn't want to know. As it turned out, we caught Spencer's symptoms very early, and he's still honeymooning, though his insulin needs are slowly creeping up....

We've asked Evan is he would like to be tested, but he doens't care, and frankly, I don't want to know. As it is, I worry everytime I see him drinking too much, but he's been fine. And honestly, the odds of him developing type 1 a so high I couldn't imagine him having it too.... (we should be so lucky with the lottery!)

When you're living the D day in and day out, it's hard to miss the signs of another kid living in your house. We just felt it we knew they were positive, we would worry everytime they were a little "off"

[LantusFiend]

Originally Posted by NatBMomto4

she said the average child has a 2 in 100 chance, where Keira now has a 5 in 100 chance...

The 5 in 100 for a sibling is the same as the 1 in 20 that I said.
The 2 in 100 for the average child is wrong- it is more like 2 in 1000.