Lucknow, Nov 19 (IANS): Medical experts at the King George's Medical University (KGMU) have said that more and more children are getting prone to type 2 Diabetes.

Kauser Usman, senior faculty member, department of medicine, KGMU, said, "The youngest child I have diagnosed and treated for diabetes was a Class 7 student, who had no family history of diabetes. There has been a rise in the number of children coming to OPD being diagnosed for diabetes, without any family history."

Doctors said changing habits/lifestyle is to be blamed more than genetics.

"Children are now having mainly food outside the house and even avoid bringing tiffin to school. Busy parents also give money rather than tiffin. Besides, they are under tremendous pressure to perform. The aim is to decide on a profession such as medicine or engineering right from Class 4 or 5. During our time, all this pressure came only after Class 10," said NS Verma, HoD, physiology, KGMU.

Doctors said that children getting diabetes is a major drawback for society.

"First, if there were no other diabetes patients, the family history for diabetes starts, secondly and most importantly, the productive age between 17 years and 40 years remains compromised due to the disease," said Usman.

"If you go by ICMR data, 18 per cent of the population in Uttar Pradesh, irrespective of age, have a risk of diabetes and they fall in the pre-diabetes category, according to the ICMR study. They can still stop diabetes from troubling them, but this needs a change in their lifestyle and food habits," said Prof Verma.

He suggested exercising daily for at least 40 minutes, maintaining a diet chart and eating what suits your body best.