My friend’s little daughter, with her rosy cheeks, round face and chubby body, was an adorable child. However she didn’t outgrow her chubbiness as she got older. When she was about 13, her mother started noticing that the back of her daughter’s neck had a dark band. Mom assumed her daughter didn’t clean it as well as she could and always reminded her to scrub it well.
However, the dark band behind her daughter’s neck didn’t go away. Concerned, the mother took her daughter to the doctor, who told her the child had acanthosis nigricans, (AN). The little girl’s body was producing too much insulin to keep her blood sugar normal. Some kids have AN underneath their arm pit, and for others it shows up in the finger joints as dark patches.
Acanthosis nigricans in itself can be completely harmless but a significant percentage of people with type 2 diabetes do have AN. For this reason it is a good idea to have your child checked out by a doctor.
For almost all kids, the dark bands will disappear with losing weight, eating healthy and regular physical activity. If your family is like mine where I can count the number of people without diabetes in one hand, here are some steps you can take to reduce the risk of your child being insulin resistant.
Physical activity helps absorbs the sugar into cells, anyone who has checked their blood sugar before and after exercise knows this.
