Recent medical research suggests that children are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes if their mother developed in her childhood. Diabetic women should also try to ensure that their blood sugar levels are low and definitely under control before they even conceive. The risk of children developing type 1 diabetes can increase if both their parents have it, and depending on how old mothers were when they developed diabetes themselves. Risks of diabetes can increase depending on children’s ethnicity.
Basically if both perspective parents have type 1 diabetes then their children have a risk of between 1 in 10 to 1 in 4 chance of developing diabetes too. Men with type 1 diabetes have a 1 in 17 chance of their children getting it.
For women the age at which they conceive and complete a pregnancy can increase or lower the risk of diabetic children. When a woman is pregnant before 25 the risk is 1 in 25, for women over 25 that do not have diabetes the risk is reduced to 1 in 100. In contrast for women over 25 that developed type 1 diabetes prior to the age of 11 the risk stands at 1 in 50.
Diabetic parents can lower the risk of having diabetic children by looking after themselves, and prospective mothers that keep a tight reign on their blood sugar levels are lowering the risks for their unborn child.
