Early diagnosis of type 1 diabetes is vital to avoid diabetic ketoacidosis and to make sure that parents, carers and non-specialist healthcare professionals recognise the classic symptoms of type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes UK recommends that any child suspected to have type 1 diabetes should be seen on the same day by a specialist paediatric diabetes team for confirmation of the diagnosis and management.
Specialist paediatric diabetes teams should be aware of the rarer forms of diabetes and undertake further investigations if a child shows characteristics of these rarer forms
We developed this position statement by reviewing the relevant literature, and current National Paediatric Diabetes Audit data, and discussing with expert clinicians through our Advisory Committee and expert paediatric diabetes clinicians. We gained further insight by engaging with parents and children through focus groups, events and social media to discover their experiences.
You can download our full position statement on diagnosing diabetes in children and young people (PDF 733 KB).
