Kids Diagnosing Themselves
Reported September 17, 2009
LAS VEGAS (Ivanhoe Newswire) — “Mommy, I don’t feel good.” Many parents hear that and think their child is whining. One kid diagnosed herself with a scary disease before the adults noticed anything wrong.
Josie Somerlott is usually bouncing around, but the spring was taken out of her step while watching a movie.
“They had a public service announcement that listed the symptoms of diabetes, and I had most of them,” Josie told Ivanhoe.
She then told her grandmother.
“I agreed with her. Yeah, you do, but that doesn’t mean you have diabetes,” Karla Tucker, Josie’s grandmother, explained to Ivanhoe.
Josie went straight to the Internet and took an online diabetes quiz.
“It said, ‘If you have one or more then you should go to the hospital immediately,'” Josie told Ivanhoe.
Her score was seven, so she went to Mom.
“I just dismissed it,” Robin Somerlott, Josie’s mom, told Ivanhoe. “Oh no, you’re fine.”
The 11-year-old couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She had lost 30 pounds but was eating and drinking everything in sight.
Finally, Josie’s Uncle Ken brought her a glucose monitor. A normal reading is around 100. Josie’s was off the charts.
“There’s a lot of intuitive knowledge from her standpoint to see that and go, ‘Wow wait a minute. Could this be something that’s going on with me?'”James Swift, M.D., pediatrician and medical director at Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas, told Ivanhoe.
Dr. Swift says the red flags for diabetes families miss are sudden changes in a child’s weight, hunger, thirst and energy.
Parents often overlook symptoms of other diseases, too. Kids who can’t catch their breath when running may not be out of shape. It could be a sign of asthma.
Constant abdominal pain could mean your child has appendicitis.
“She did say, ‘I told you so, Mom,'” Robin recalled. “I think I deserved it. I think I did deserve it.”
Josie now manages her diabetes with insulin. She says she’s able to eat all her favorite foods. She also checks her blood sugar before every meal and before bed.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Ashlee Seymour
Sunrise Children’s Hospital
Las Vegas, NV