CHOC Doctors Warn Parents to Watch for Diabetes Symptoms in Children

After an unusually high number of juvenile diabetic cases recently, physicians at Children’s Hospital of Orange County are urging parents to watch out for symptoms of the genetic disease.

CHOC officials have admitted seven children over the past three days, according to Dr. Bruce Buckingham, the director of endocrinology at CHOC. Normally, the Orange hospital treats four or five such cases a month.

“Diabetes is not infectious,” Buckingham said. “But this is just a high number of cases compared to the last 15 years.”

Although the disease almost always stems from genetic factors, Buckingham is concerned that a virus could be responsible for triggering the diabetes.

“There may be something in the community that is unmasking latent diabetes,” Buckingham said. “We just don’t know right now.”

Four of seven remained hospitalized in pediatric intensive care, CHOC officials said. The children, all under 5 years old, are from different parts of the county. Six of the seven child patients were male.

Buckingham urged parents to bring their children to a pediatrician if they identify the following symptoms: increased appetite accompanied by weight loss or excessive thirst or urination.

Children who come from families with a history of the disease should be especially careful.