Worried about DS16

[walsallwarrior]

Hi all
DS16 has been showing some(?) symptoms of diabetes lately and not sure if it’s enough to get him checked. He has experienced some tingling in his hands, has drier skin than usual, gets foot and hand cramp easier, and “sees bright lights weird” - how he described it to me. He has also had a much smaller appetite recently and his bowel habits have changed accordingly.

He isn’t particularly active but isn’t overweight, but has an appalling diet (95% carbs), inadequate amounts of f+v and far, far too much chocolate since he was eight or nine. I have tried unsuccessfully to change this several times and now he regrets not listening

He is a catastrophiser and has made me wonder whether something could be causing this.

I know mumsnet isnt the place to ask but we are on holiday and he is very worried so if anyone with experience could advise either way we would both really appreciate it. Tia xx

Get him checked. You might find you've wasted a few hours and there's nothing wrong, or you might be glad you got him checked.

I realised I had symptoms a few months ago, couldn't get an appt for the Dr, so bought a freestyle Libre 2 sensor on Amazon for next day delivery. Stuck it on my arm, downloaded the app and within a few hours I was getting alerts about very high glucose readings.

Called 111 who sent me to A&E, a few hours of blood tests, ECG, waiting around and I found myself sat in front of a diabetes nurse being educated on how to inject insulin and deal with Hypos.

They were very insistent that it was a good thing I got checked and that it was important to treat it as an emergency.

Just tell him it's probably fine but you'll go to the doctor when you get back from holiday and see what they say.

Isn't the main symptoms of diabetes excessive thirst?

I'd be more wondering about a vitamin deficiency or something, especially if poor diet

I was going to write the same thing about a vitamin deficiency - has he been taking a multi-vitamin at least?

Main symptoms of type 1 diabetes are the 4 T's:
Thirsty
Thinner
Tired
Toilet (urinating more frequently)

If he's got two or more of these then don't wait a few days, get him seen immediately. A simple urine test should pick up high levels of sugar and ketones straight away.
Type 1 can make people incredibly poorly incredibly fast - they can go from feeling ok to needing emergency hospitalisation in the blink of an eye so please don't delay seeking help if he is showing any of these signs.
This spoken from a mum of T1 DD xx

He isn’t particularly active but isn’t overweight, but has an appalling diet (95% carbs), inadequate amounts of f+v and far, far too much chocolate since he was eight or nine. I have tried unsuccessfully to change this several times and now he regrets not listening

If he’s not enormously overweight then he’s very unlikely to have T2 - age related/running out of a specific enzyme related

T1 is nothing to do with diet.

DS is very much not overweight - 60th centile ish BMI wise - would this then indicate that it probably wouldn’t be Type 2?

@FutureFry it could well be a vitamin deficiency, his diet is shocking.

Thanks all for insights, has calmed me down a lot