Statistics of Siblings of Type 1 Children

Tonight, while waiting till 3am to check my son's blood sugar, I had a thought. I wonder what the statistics are for the siblings of children living with Type 1, to get Type 1 themselves. So, I decided to do some google searching on that.

I came across the American Diabetes Association website first. These are the statistics they had listed on the particular page that came up when I searched.

• For men with Type 1, your child is at a 1 in 17 risk of getting diabetes
• For women with Type 1, your child is at a 1 in 25 risk if your child was born before you turned 25. If your child was born after you were 25, his/her risk drops to 1 in 100.
• Your child's risk doubles if you were diagnosed with diabetes before the age of 11.
• If both parents are Type 1, the risk of your child getting diabetes is between 1 in 10 and 1 in 4.

However, the American Diabetes Association states there is an exception to these statistics. It states:

There is an exception to these numbers. About 1 in every 7 people with type 1 diabetes has a condition called type 2 polyglandular autoimmune syndrome.

In addition to having diabetes, these people also have thyroid disease and a poorly working adrenal gland. Some also have other immune system disorders. If you have this syndrome, your child's risk of getting the syndrome including type 1 diabetes is 1 in 2.

While these statistics are very helpful, and useful... it didn't quite answer my original question. So, I searched again!

I came across this website called Diabetic Lifestyle. This is where I found what I was looking for! This site states:

1. If an immediate relative (parent, sibling, offspring) has type 1 diabetes, your risk is 10 to 20 times the risk of the general population. Your risk can go from 1 in 100 to roughly 1 in 10 or possibly higher, depending on which family member has diabetes and when they developed it.
2. If one child in a family has type 1 diabetes, their siblings have a 1 in 10 risk of developing it by age 50.
3. The risk for a child of a parent with type 1 diabetes is lower if it is the mother who has the diabetes rather than the father. If it is the father, the risk is 1 in 10 ( 10 percent) . If it's the mother the risk is 1 in 24 ( 4 percent), and if the mother is over age 25, the risk drops to 1 in 100, the same for the general American population.
4. If one of the parents developed type 1 diabetes before age 11, their child's risk is somewhat higher than the figures in #3 and somewhat lower, if the parents was diagnosed after age 11.
5. About 1 in 7 people with type 1 diabetes has a condition known as type 2 polyglandular autoimmune syndrome. In addition to type 1 diabetes, these people have thyroid disease, malfunctioning adrenal glands, and sometimes other immune disorders. For those with this syndrome, the child's risk of having the syndrome, including type 1 diabetes, is 1 in 2 according to the American Diabetes Association.

Now, according to the American Diabetes Association, there are a couple of ways to find out if your child is at a higher risk of getting Type 1 Diabetes.

The ADA states:

Researchers are learning how to predict a person's odds of getting diabetes. For example, most whites with type 1 diabetes have genes called HLA-DR3 or HLA-DR4.
If you and your child are white and share these genes, your child's risk is higher. (Suspect genes in other ethnic groups are less well studied. The HLA-DR7 gene may put African Americans at risk, and the HLA-DR9 gene may put Japanese at risk.)
Other tests can also make your child's risk clearer. A special test that tells how the body responds to glucose can tell which school-aged children are most at risk.
Another more expensive test can be done for children who have siblings with type 1 diabetes. This test measures antibodies to insulin, to islet cells in the pancreas, or to an enzyme called glutamic acid decarboxylase. High levels can indicate that a child has a higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes

For more information, please visit the ADA website.