What are the symptoms of Diabetes?

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes in children usually shows itself suddenly, usually over weeks or a few months at most. Occasionally, especially in very young children the symptoms develop even more rapidly. Symptoms may be so severe as to be life-threatening if not treated. The main symptoms are:

•  Extreme thirst
• Passing urine very frequently (children may start bedwetting again after being previously dry at night)
• Sudden, noticeable weight loss 
• Strange smell on the breath 
• Dry, hot skin, dry lips, sunken eyes
• Complaints of abdominal or leg pain
• Irritability
• Drowsiness, ‘snoring’ breaths
• Unconsciousness and coma if not treated.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes creeps up on people. It is a slowly developing disease and some people become used to the symptoms so don’t notice them.

Others put the symptoms down to other things like growing older, being stressed, having a bladder or prostate problem.

Even doctors may miss what the symptoms mean. This is because many of the early symptoms can be the same as with other less serious complaints.

Often if the symptoms are missed and diabetes isn’t noticed until the blood glucose levels are very high, the person feels very ill, and may even have had a heart attack or some other problem that goes with untreated high blood glucose levels.

Yet, to make things even more difficult, some people don’t have symptoms at all and are picked up and diagnosed by their doctor when having routine health checks.

Common symptoms of Type 2 diabetes:

• Feeling tired and lethargic
• Feeling hungry
• Passing urine more often, most noticeable at night
• Feeling thirsty all the time
• Blurred vision
• Feeling itchy
• Having cuts and infections that don’t heal quickly
• Thrush in women
• Impotence in men
• Gradual weight gain, or
• Slow weight loss
• Headache or feeling of heaviness in head
• Dizziness
• Mood swings