A report claims that thousands of children with Type 1 diabetes are going undiagnosed until they suffer life-threatening warning signs.
Dr Julie Edge, a consultant paediatric diabetologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, has published a report in British Medical Journal claiming that a quarter of the 29,000 children with Type 1 diabetes in Britain are only diagnosed once they suffer the life-threatening 'warning signs' of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA).
DKA usually only occurs when Type 1 diabetes is fully established, and is brought on by dangerously high blood glucose levels. Its symptoms are nausea and vomiting, stomach pains and rapid breathing, and can lead to a coma.
Dr Edge says in her report that in children diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes before the age of five, 35 per cent have had DKA.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Sarah Johnson, of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation urged parents and medics to look out for the signs of diabetes, which include thirst, tiredness, weight loss, frequent urination, including recent-onset bed-wetting and blurred vision.
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