20 years ago it just hit adults in their 50s, says top doctor
A LEADING consultant has revealed how the number of children he is treating for type 2 diabetes has rocketed.
Professor Timothy Barrett is looking after 0 children with type 2 diabetes. He sees five or six new cases every year – yet two decades ago type 2 diabetes in children was unheard of.
‘Most of the children are between 12 and 16 years of age,’ said Professor Barrett, a consultant in paediatric diabetes at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital.
‘We do a clinic every couple of weeks for obesity-related diabetes. It used to be about four times a year.
‘We’re seeing more children with obesity-related diabetes than we were five or ten years ago in our population. The youngest I’ve seen was an eight-year-old, presenting with obesity-related diabetes. The youngest we have at the moment is about 12.
‘Twenty or thirty years ago everybody with type 2 diabetes would be mainly 50s and upwards. The first children were reported in the millennium, from Birmingham. Since then, instead of being unusual, we have quite a few children a year presenting with this.
‘A proportion of these children seem to get other complications alongside the diabetes. One of those can be fatty livers.
‘If it’s not managed appropriately it can cause liver scaring, or cirrhosis. Other complications we see are high blood pressure, kidney damage, early-onset heart disease.’
He added: ‘Often it isn’t just the child obese in isolation, but the whole family is overweight and with type 2 diabetes. It’s quite hard to change the whole family’s eating habits.’
Referring to what parents could do to prevent children becoming obese and developing type 2 diabetes, he said: ‘Try to eat only at meal times, cut out snacks during the day and avoid grazing. Try to have sensible portion sizes.’ He also recommended an hour’s exercise a day that leaves children out of breath, and to reduce sedentary time spent on smartphones or in front of the computer.