What’s your child eating? Watch out for killer diabetes

By Ally Jamah

The Government has issued an alert over increasing cases of diabetes among children.

Director of Medical Services Francis Kimani has now appealed to parents to keep watch on what their children feed on or they will be forced to treat their children for diabetes for their entire lives.

"We are seeing more children and youth being diagnosed with diabetes in Government health facilities. We are worried that we could soon be having an epidemic in our hands," warned the Dr Kimani.

He said yesterday that cases of both type one and type two diabetes have significantly increased especially among children and youth.

Sugar, fat and salt

The official advised: "Parents should avoid giving children foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt. These will make them obese and prone to diabetes."

Kimani was speaking when he launched a conference organised by the African Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Endocrinology at Nairobi’s Panafric Hotel.

Type one diabetes results from the body’s failure to produce insulin and requires regular insulin injections while type two results when cells fail to use insulin properly.

It is estimated that at least three million Kenyans suffer from both types of diabetes, with many more carrying the condition without being aware. Lack of physical exercises and high-calorie food intake have been cited as risk factors.

"Doctors discovered that I had type one diabetes when I was 15 years and right now I cannot survive without insulin injections," said Allan Muthee, 17.

A lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Ms Lucy Nduato, advised the Government to respond to the diabetes epidemic in children and youth by providing free insulin to combat the condition.

"Even countries like Mozambique are already providing free insulin to their patients as well as countries in Europe and North America. It is time we took similar steps," she urged.

But Kimani down played such a possibility saying the Government was already subsidising insulin heavily from Sh1,500 to Sh300 and may not afford further cutbacks.

National register

The Director of Medical Services added that due to high demand for insulin in Government health facilities, the Ministry of Health would soon launch a national register to keep tab on patients.

"We want to avoid cases of patients taking more than their fair share of doses by registering their names in different hospitals. Now we want to establish a central registry," he said.

Kenya is among developing countries with a large portion of population relying on fast foods, which increases the risk of diabetes.