Type 2 diabetes commonly occurs in children who are:

• Overweight: As many as 80% of youth may be overweight at the time of diagnosis.
  
  
• Older than 10 years of age and are in middle to late puberty; but cases of type 2 diabetes in children as young as four years old have been documented.
  
  
• Have a family history of type 2 diabetes.
  
  
• A member of a certain racial/ethnic group (African American, Hispanic/Latino and Native American descent).
  
  
• As the U.S. population becomes increasingly overweight, researchers expect type 2 diabetes to appear more frequently in younger, pre-pubescent children.
  
  
• Since type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents is a relatively new phenomenon, accurate statistics regarding the number of cases have not been generated. However, recent reports indicate that 8-45% of children with newly-diagnosed diabetes have type 2 diabetes.

What are the complications of diabetes?

The complications of diabetes include heart disease, stroke, vision loss/blindness, amputation and kidney disease.

• Cardiovascular disease caused by atherosclerosis (excess buildup on the inner wall of a large blood vessel, restricting the flow of blood) accounts for approximately 25% of deaths among patients with onset of diabetes before 20 years of age.
  
  
• Blindness due to diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is a more important cause of visual impairment in younger-onset people than in older-onset people. Males with younger-onset diabetes develop retinopathy more rapidly than females with younger-onset diabetes.
  
  
• Kidney disease due to diabetic nephropathy. Ten to 21% of all people with diabetes develop kidney disease. Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD, or kidney failure), accounting for 43% of new cases. ESRD requires the patient to undergo dialysis or kidney transplantation in order to live. In people with type 1 diabetes who develop proteinuria (protein in the urine), ESRD or death usually follows after about 5-10 years.
  
  
• Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is one of the most serious outcomes of poorly controlled diabetes, and primarily occurs in type 1 individuals. DKA is marked by high blood glucose levels along with ketones in the urine. DKA is responsible for about 10% of diabetes-related deaths in individuals with diabetes under age 45