They now have a blood test that shows 3 possibilities 1. Genetics 2. Auto-immune disease and 3. Crap shoot. That part of the pancreas just kicked out, no genetics pre or post...They are named scientifically the 1. GAD - Sean had a 65 antibody, 2. IA- he was 7.3 and 3. Insulin (Crap shoot. The only one he was neg for...) My dear friend had that kind. Currently his Celiac test and Thyroid are negative but both are closely watched as they typically go hand and hand with auto-immune type 1 diabetes. One reason they run blood work every 3mo. We could do clinical trials and get the other kids tested, but I have personally enough fear and anxiety as is! Plus one needs the environmental trigger. Like the flu. Which Sean most likely had last Sept 2011. The trigger part being flu is a widely assumed but recognized theory. So Sean is 2/3 positive for the blood work make-up, but had to have the trigger...Another answer to your question: if you or anyone you know sees signs of sudden weight loss, extreme thirst, frequent urination (at night it's more obvious in older kids...), headache/nausea (which I took Sean in for and retook him a day later when they took his appendix out...and extreme hunger (which I can't vouch for noticing it looking back on, either). Or difficulty breathing and/or vomiting.- (and these don't all happen together)... Shout out to a friend who may have a test kit for the finger prick blood glucose number test. Or buy supplies at Walmart. Better yet, don't just see your doctor. See ANOTHER one. We thought it was his asthma. We thought it was 7-9pm practices so he was extra dehydrated at bedtime. We thought maybe urinary tract infection? We thought he lost all the weight from being the first time in organized sports back to back...Then we thought he was dying. It was bad by the time we caught it. So Sean went to ICU and mommy has been on Facebook ever since ALL of that...(Nov 2- Jan 31 when finally diagnosed). Blessed to have this amazing boy whose name means "God is Gracious"!