It was around October 2019, when our son Gregory started drinking more water than usual, a thing that actually made us more happy than worried, as everyone knows that drinking water along with a balanced nutrition is good for the human body and health in general. Hmm, now we know this was not the case, as these were actually type one diabetes symptoms!
The five main symptoms that our son had
Polydipsia
The word “Polydipsia” derives from two Greek words, “poly” (much) and “dipsia” (thirst) and means “a situation when someone is very thirsty”.
In the beginning, Gregory had started drinking around 4 child water bottles (300ml each) per day. Nothing seemed suspicious to us. In the following months, around February he ended up drinking 8-10 bottles per day, which was nearly 3 litres of water. This is a lot of water for a 2.5 year old boy!
At a certain point, the fact that we was asking to drink water so often made me and my wife to start hiding his water bottle in order to try and limit his daily intake. He was literally drinking more water than me and my wife together.
Polyuria
This word has also a Greek origin and derives from the words “poly” (much) and “uria” (urinate) and describes the fact that someones body produces too much urine. That was natural as he was drinking around 3 liters of water per day.
Polyphagia
Another Greek word here, which describes the fact that someone has extreme hunger. Much different from having extreme appetite, because eating will not return the hunger level back to normal. In our case, Gregory was continuously asking to eat something. A snack or even a full meal could only satisfy his hunger for a while. No need to say that his nutrition was not balanced at all.
Loss of weight
After eating so much due to polyphagia which was described above, someone would expect that the child would easily gain weight. Contrariwise, Gregory started loosing weight!
Fatigue
Despite the continuous food and water consumption, Gregory seemed to be frequently fatigue. Specifically he was unwilling to walk and he asked us to hug and carry him on our hands.
Of course there are more Type 1 Diabetes symptoms, but I only mention the ones that our son had before being diagnosed.
Our advice
- Listen to your child and talk with him/her
- Don’t ignore the symptoms
- Talk with your child doctor and ask for his/her opinion
- Don’t trust whatever you find on the internet. Prefer your doctor than Google! Google may support but never replace a doctor.
- Relax. Having one or more of the above symptoms does not mean that your child is diabetic.
