Type 2 diabetes hitting children

Sunday Star July 25, 2010
Teens with Type 2 diabetes need to change eating habits
By NG CHENG YEE
newsdesk@thestar.com.my


PETALING JAYA: Like most teenagers, Nurul Rahimah Abu Bakar, 14, loves ice-cream, cakes and chocolates.

Once, she would have these desserts after dinner with her family.

However, such times are no more and the family now has more salad and vegetables on their dinner table, said her mother, Zalilah Selamat, 49.

The family had to change their eating habits after Nurul Rahimah, the youngest among four siblings, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes (T2D).

The condition normally hits those in their 50s.

When Nurul Rahimah was 11, it dawned on Zalilah that her daughter could be a diabetic as she was constantly feeling thirsty and going to the washroom to ease herself at least twice every night.

Zalilah, a diabetic since she was 35, said her daughter was going through the same symptoms that she had previously gone through.

Zalilah, whose late father also had diabetes, said Nurul Rahimah’s blood sample was sent to a laboratory in Australia for a detailed diagnosis.

The tests confirmed the teenager as a T2D.

“Since then, we have reduced the intake of processed food as Nurul Rahimah had to lose some weight,” her mother said.

Zalilah said it was difficult initially for her daughter to follow the new diet “because my family just love and enjoy all types of food”.

“However, she is now inspired to be more disciplined in controlling her diet after seeing good results in her blood sugar.

“As advised by her doctors, she has a more balanced meal made up of rice (25%), protein (25%) and vegetables (50%).

“She no longer takes sweet drinks and tries to avoid fast food,” said Zalilah.

Another young patient, Muhammad Ridzwan Rodzi, 13, was overweight by 15kg when he was diagnosed with T2D in March last year.

“He was very much into playing video games and hardly spent time playing with his friends outside of the house,” said his father Rodzi Mashor, 53.

“When he was diagnosed with the disease, his blood sugar level was very high.

“However, with oral medication and the injection of insulin three times a day, his condition has stabilised,” Rodzi said, adding that his son also controlled his diet by eating less to lose weight.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai advised parents not to let their children eat unhealthy food round the clock as it could lead to T2D.

Parents should prepare nutritious food instead, he said.

He was commenting on The Star’s front-page report on the increasing number of young T2D patients.

“Children enjoy fast food, so parents should educate them on cutting down burgers, nuggets, fries and carbonated drinks.

“Parents should inculcate a healthy diet from young,” he told reporters after opening the Malaysian Dietitians’ Association Scientific Conference here yesterday.

He said the National Health and Morbidity Survey conducted in 2006 showed that Malaysian adults with diabetes had increased from 8.3% in 1996 to 14.9% in 2006, while hypertension cases had increased from 29.9% to 43% and obesity from 4.4% to 14%.

The Star, Saturday July 24, 2010
Diabetes among children on the rise
By LEE YUK PENG and LOH FOON FONG
newsdesk@thestar.com.my


KUALA LUMPUR: More young people, some as young as seven, are suffering from Type 2 diabetes (T2D), a disease that generally hits those in their 50s.

Doctors say more primary school students have been diagnosed with T2D in the last decade, a fact that is alarming since the disease is usually linked to those much older.

The doctors found that the young diabetics were usually obese, and their condition could be traced to eating too much unhealthy food and having a sedentary lifestyle.

They said the disease was not just about having excessive sugar in the blood system but could also affect the patient’s vital organs like the heart, kidneys, nerves and eyes.

“The children’s bad dietary habits of eating burgers, nuggets, fried chicken, fries and carbonated drinks are also contributing factors,” Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre senior consultant paediatrician and paediatric endocrinologist Prof Dr Wu Loo Ling said, adding that long hours of homework, watching television and playing computer games added to the problem.

“Cases of children and teenagers with diabetes are increasing at a faster rate,” said Dr Wu. “Between 30% and 40% of children in Western countries are overweight and the problem of overweight Malaysian children is also on the rise.”

Endocrinologist Dr Lim Soo San said T2D was more apparent in people aged between 18 and 29.

“We even came across children who are below 10 years old and have T2D ,” Dr Lim said.

The Registry on Diabetes in Children and Adolescents (2006-2007) showed that 56% of the 42 T2D cases involved obese individuals.

Dr Lim said parents continued to feed their children with “junk food” due to their lack of awareness of the disease.

Dietician Mary Easaw-John said apart from bad eating habits, irregular eating hours had also contributed to the rising trend of T2D among younger people.

“People tend to eat out instead of packing food from home nowadays. And fried food is common in eateries,” said Easaw, who is Dietetics Food Services of the National Heart Institute senior manager.

The Third National Health and Morbidity Survey, conducted in 2006, showed that there was a high prevalence of overweight primary school children, and over 20% of them were obese.

Statistics pointed that Malaysia had the fourth highest number of diabetes cases in Asia, with 800,000 in 2007. The number is expected to jump to 1.3 million cases this year.

The recent survey also revealed that more than 43% of Malaysian adults were overweight or obese, twice the figure a decade ago.