Type II diabetes has an even stronger genetic basis, but risk also is influenced by environmental factors. Here are the statistics for the risk of the child of a diabetic getting diabetes but remember statistics are only estimates of probability, not a statement of whether or not a child will inherit diabetes. In Type I, the odds of the child of a man with the disease getting it are one in seventeen. If a woman developed diabetes before age eleven, the risk of her child having it is doubled. If you have Type II, the risk of your child getting diabetes is one in seven if you were diagnosed before age fifty and one in thirteen if you were diagnosed after age fifty.
Some scientists think that the risk is greater when the parent with diabetes is the mother.
Some diabetics have no symptoms at all, and the disease is discovered as a result of a routine blood test. In fact, it is these problems that may have prompted testing glucose level in the first place. Diabetes is diagnosed by measuring blood glucose. This is done in one of two ways. A fasting blood glucose is drawn first thing in the morning, when you have not eaten anything for ten to twelve hours.