Did you know that maternal gestational diabetes is linked to diabetes in children?

According to research published in CMAJ, diabetes in children is more likely to occur if the mother of the child has had gestational diabetes.

Early detection of diabetes is crucial in children and young people, as about a quarter of them are diagnosed when they seek care for diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication of diabetes. Researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center in Canada have conducted extensive research to discover the link between maternal gestational diabetes and diabetes in children.

The probability of diabetes in children

Kaberi Dasgupta, a clinical researcher at the Center for Results Research and Evaluation (CORE) at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center, explains: "Although type 1 and type 2 diabetes is a good risk factor established for us show that gestational diabetes mellitus may be a risk indicator of diabetes in children of the mother before the age of 22 years. "

The study of 73,180 mothers compared data on single births randomly chosen from mothers with gestational diabetes to births of mothers without gestational diabetes.

The incidence, which refers to the number of new cases, of diabetes per 10,000 person-years was 4.5 in children born to mothers with gestational diabetes and 2.4 in mothers without.

A child or teenager whose mother had gestational diabetes was almost twice as likely to develop diabetes before the age of 22. The badociation has been found in children from birth to 22 years, from birth to 12 years and 12 to 22 years.

Maternal gestational diabetes is linked to diabetes in children?

"This link between diabetes in children and adolescents with gestational diabetes in the mother has the potential to stimulate clinicians, parents, and children and youth," adds Dasgupta.

Researchers must now "consider the possibility of diabetes if children of a mother with gestational diabetes develop signs and symptoms such as frequent urination, abnormal thirst, weight loss or fatigue," she concludes.