Question:
I am trying to find out whether Juvenile Diabetes tends to run in families
and/or is hereditary? If one family member has Juvenile Diabetes, what is
the percentage that her siblings will develop type 2 (adult diabetes), and
that their children will have Juvenile Diabetes??
Answer:
I have had type 1 (juvenile) since age 9 (1974). No one else in my family
is type 1 (I have 2 siblings), and I had one great grandfather who was
type 2 at about 75 or so. When I became pregnant in 1996, the endo told me
while a child with no diabetic parents has a 1% chance of becoming
diabetic (type 1), a child WITH a diabetic parent has a less than 3%
chance of becoming diabetic. Greater, but pretty insignificant.
Alas, my 4 year old was just diagnosed last month with type 1 diabetes. I
think she and I will go play the lottery! (By the way, she is doing very
well and can now test her own blood sugar - using the FreeStyle - and does
her own injections (using an inject-ease device with a syringe. Kids are
amazing)
