Children and teens are at risk for several forms of diabetes: type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) and a rare inherited condition called Wolfram syndrome. U.S. government health agencies estimate that:

• 176,000 Americans under age 21 (0.22 percent of that age group) have diabetes.
  
  
• One in every 400 to 600 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes.
  
  
• About 2 million American adolescents have prediabetes.
  
  
• More than a third of Americans born in 2000 will eventually develop diabetes.

The National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) cautions that data on pediatric diabetes are inadequate. Although authorities generally agree that the prevalence of diabetes in childhood is growing, federal estimates were slightly reduced in 2005 because they were based on five years of data instead of the most recent three years, as was previously done. Improved reliability is expected upon completion of a major five-year project, SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth.

Facts about diabetes in young people include the following:

• Type 1 diabetes in youth
  
  
• • Risk is higher than virtually any other chronic childhood disease.
    
    
  • Occurs most often between ages 10 to 12 in girls, and 12 to 14 in boys.
    
    
  • Can lead to a condition called double diabetes in which insulin resistance develops, typically because of excess weight, lack of exercise and poor eating habits.
    
    
• Type 2 diabetes in youth
  
  
• • Tends to affect those who are older than age 10.
    
    
  • Is also being increasingly reported in younger children because of the rise of childhood obesity. 

MODY is a genetic form of diabetes that is sometimes described as a variation of type 2 diabetes. It usually affects young adults but is also seen in teens and children. Unlike standard type 2 diabetes, patients do not tend to be overweight or sedentary.

A genetic mutation is responsible for the impaired insulin secretion that is characteristic of MODY. In most cases, those with MODY do not have insulin resistance.

Wolfram syndrome is a rare genetic condition that includes insulin-dependent diabetes, loss of hearing, loss of vision and an endocrine disorder called diabetes insipidus.

There is also a rare diabetic condition called Mauriac syndrome (diabetic dwarfism) that causes enlarged liver, shortened stature and delayed puberty in children.