World Diabetes day: Common myths about type 1 diabetes, commonly found in children

World Diabetes Day is marked on November 14 each year.

The day aims to spread awareness about the medical condition -- once found largely only in older people but now becoming more common in the younger generations.

Each November, communities across the country observe the day to focus attention on diabetes and its impact on millions of people around the world.

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Diabetes is a group of metabolic disorders in which there are high blood sugar levels over a prolonged period. Symptoms of high blood sugar include frequent urination, increased thirst, and increased hunger.

Earlier considered to be only found in older people, diabetes is becoming common in the younger generation; According to a 2015 study by Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, in India 97,700 children were suffering from Type 1 Diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. type 1 is opposite ofthe form of diabetes that affects adults. Juvenile diabetes has no cure but can be controlled by taking four injections a day of insulin drug to maintain blood sugar levels. Tablets have absolutely no effect on this form of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is much harder to identify at an early age as they start with very common symptoms like a child will drink a lot of liquids, urinate several times, eat much more than normal and still lose weight.

If these symptoms in a child of any age witnessed for more than four days should prompt a visit to a pediatrician.

Despite taking daily injections if the disease diagnoses quickly Children do well. on the other hand, if not treated appropriately it could go worse and may result in loss of life.

One of the many misconceptions about type 1 diabetes is that keeping the child totally off sweets, rice, and potatoes; parents should not do that.Starving your child to control diabetes does not work, as a child needs nutritious food to grow.

Another myth about diabetes among parents is that they start to keep their child away from physical activities instead, they should encourage their child to go out more and do regular exercise and should participate in sports activities.

This has been seen that insome cases, the child sometimes goes into depression because of diabetes so parents need to take care of that. Not only your child's physical health is important but parents should also focus on the child’s emotional, mental and social well-being.