What Are the Chances My Newborn Son Will Have Diabetes if My Husband Is Type 2?
Friday, February 26th, 2010 at
3:06 am
SSTLM asked:
My husband is 31 years old. He got type 2 diabetes 4 years ago. We now have a newborn and I’m nervous he will get diabetes in his life as well. Anyone know the risks? Thank you!
My husband is 31 years old. He got type 2 diabetes 4 years ago. We now have a newborn and I’m nervous he will get diabetes in his life as well. Anyone know the risks? Thank you!
PS – I am not diabetic and did not have gestational diabetes either. My son was born full term and of healthy weight and size.
Tagged with: Diabetes 2 • Diabetes Type • Type Diabetes
Filed under: Diabetes
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It depends. It’s not hereditary, it’s brought on by lifestyle. You just need to make sure you teach your son healthy eating habits. Part of that will be your husband eating healthily, since a lot of what they learn is by example.
ETA: You can pass on a genetic predisposition, but that’s different than being hereditary. It just means it has to be all that much more important for a proper diet and exercise.
Now that I have diabetes, will my children get it too?
You may have heard diabetes is genetic but genes are not the only risk factor for diabetes.
Lifestyle factors including obesity and physical inactivity leads to Type 2 diabetes. These risks coupled with a genetic predisposition are the unpleasant recipe for Type 2 diabetes.
Children as young as 4 years of age are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. If a child is obese and physically inactive, he or she may in fact be heading for diabetes. Talk with your doctor or diabetes educator about a plan that is a healthy lifestyle for your entire family. The best successes for weight loss and diabetes control occurs when an entire family begins eating healthy, focusing on weight loss, and exercising.
A recent study examined prevention of diabetes among those with glucose intolerance (those with elevated blood sugars but blood sugars are not high enough to meet the diabetes diagnosis criteria). The study found risk for diabetes was reduced by 58% by those who did the following:
exercised 30 minutes daily, 5 days per week
lost of 5-7% total body weight if overweight (an example of this might be a 200 lb male losing 5% of his body weight = 10 pound weight loss)
followed a healthy meal plan.
There are many ways to decrease risk even if you are genetically predisposed for diabetes. If your child is overweight or inactive, contact their doctor. Ask about how to help your child reach a healthy body weight. Reduce risk of diabetes for your entire family.
Type 2 diabetes tends to be fairly hereditary in contrast to type 1 diabetes. Approximately 38% of siblings and one-third of children of people with type 2 diabetes will develop diabetes or abnormal glucose metabolism at some point. The degree of obesity also seems to be a factor, with a larger percentage of diabetes developing in those who are more obese. Studies with identical twins showed that 90-100% of the time when diabetes developed in one it would also develop in the other compared with 50% in type 1 diabetes.Development of type 2 diabetes seems to be multi-factorial; that is, there are a number of issues to blame. Genetic predisposition seems to be the strongest factor. Obesity and high caloric intake seem to be another. Twenty percent of people with this type 2 diabetes have antibodies to their islet cells which are detectable in their blood resulting in the expected low levels of insulin, suggesting the possibility of incomplete islet cell destruction. These patients often tend to respond early to oral drugs to lower blood sugar but may need insulin at some point. Usually develops in middle age or later. This tendency to develop later in life has given rise to the term “adult onset diabetes,” although the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in younger people is rising, making this term somewhat inaccurate and outdated.
The typical type 2 diabetes patient is overweight ,although there are exceptions. In contrast to type 1 diabetes, symptoms often have a more gradual onset. Type 2 diabetes is associated with insulin resistance rather than the lack of insulin, as seen in type 1 diabetes. This often is obtained as a hereditary tendency from one’s parents. Insulin levels in these patients are usually normal or higher than average but the body’s cells are rather sluggish to respond to it. This lack of insulin activity results in higher than normal blood glucose levels. i would consult your pediatrician at some point for testing….
My family has type 1. That’s the one you need to worry about. Type 2 you are not born with and is prevented by eating healthy and taking care of your body. You son has a good chance of NOT getting it