Experts say sedentary lifestyles, food insecurity, and other factors are driving an increase in childhood diabetes in Kentucky.

Research shows nationwide, the number of young people with type 2 diabetes jumped by 77% during the first year of the pandemic, compared with the two years prior.

Leslie Scott is an associate professor and pediatric nurse practitioner at the University of Kentucky's Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center.

She said she's seeing more diagnoses of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in kids.

She said the younger a child is when diagnosed, the greater the odds of developing co-morbid conditions - such as high blood pressure, kidney disease and neuropathy later in life.

"Some of the symptoms are very vague and difficult to kind of tease out," said Scott. "But if you have a child that's drinking a lot more fluids than they normally have, if they're losing weight unexpectedly, if they're going to the bathroom a lot - those are some things that you would want to certainly seek an evaluation for."

According to the American Diabetes Association, 352,000 Americans under age 20 are estimated to have diagnosed diabetes.

Diabetes was the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021, and was responsible for more than $300 billion in direct medical costs in 2022 alone.

Ben Chandler is the CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, whose new campaign aims to increase community prevention awareness and help families spot warning signs of the condition in children.

He said a more active lifestyle and maintaining healthy weight can go a long way toward reducing risk.

"We also don't have the proper screening for young people," said Chandler. "We could have more community events that could include free screening. So there are things that we can do, and there are things that schools can do."

Scott added that school nurses can play a critical role in spotting diabetes early on in kids, and improving overall health.

"There are guidelines for screening for risk of Type 2 diabetes in children," said Scott, "and that begins either at puberty, at the age of 10 - where they want to start children that are overweight or obese, you want to start monitoring for some of those risks."

Living with diabetes can be stressful and isolating for kids.

Scott said Camp Hendon - a diabetes summer camp based in Louisville - provides a supportive and educational environment, as well as a normal summer camp experience for kids who have to regularly check their blood glucose levels and administer insulin.

Utah parents can expect to pay between $800 and $1,200 dollars a month for child care but a new program is expanding its reach into Summit County to help with affordability.

The nationwide child care network Upwards will offer need-based child care scholarships of up to $1,700 for preschoolers. The group is partnering with Summit County and Park City Municipal.

Starr Mastrodonato, program manager for Upwards, said to qualify, at least one parent must reside or work in Summit County, and the total family income cannot exceed 100% of the county's area median income. She pointed out removing barriers to child care also means parents can stay in the workforce.

"It really allowed them to make life decisions on, 'We both can continue to work and to contribute to our family,'" Mastrodonato explained. "And that obviously is just monumental in just overall well-being, not only for their household, their children. And it continues to help the economic workforce."

While cost is one factor, availability is another. Research shows no one county in Utah has the sufficient number of licensed care providers to meet demand. Summit County has the highest percentage of child care needs being met at 54%, according to Voices for Utah Children. Statewide, the number drops to 36%.

Mastrodonato explained expanding assistance to Summit County comes after their Park City pilot program was able to assist 34 working families and helped support 17 child care providers. For every child enrolled at a provider location, the provider receives an additional $300 per month. She added Upwards is excited to build on the program's success.

"We're hoping they take this model, to see how successful it has been," Mastrodonato noted. "And within six months, be able to identify that we can expand to reach more families."

Summit County scholarships and child care provider incentives became available earlier this month. They will be available on a first-come, first-served basis each month.


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More employers are offering benefits to adoptive parents, according to a new survey by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The amount of paid leave offered to foster parents is now nearly 10 weeks, up 3% from last year.

Jeremy Madden, a resident of Liberty Township, Ohio, and his wife relied on workplace adoption benefits through his employer, Fifth Third Bank, to adopt their baby daughter. He said the process was easy and the financial reimbursement was a game changer, as adoption can cost thousands of dollars. Now, they've settled into life as a family.

"She's fantastic, we wouldn't change anything," he said. "She's brought so much joy and happiness into our life. She's developing her own personality. She is super smart."

Companies that offer new adoption benefits include Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Inc. and Ziff Davis Inc. Highly ranked companies include Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Liberty Media Corp., American Express and MongoDB Inc. Ferring Pharmaceuticals topped the list for providing unlimited financial reimbursement for adoption costs and 26 weeks of paid leave to adoptive parents.

Rita Soronen, the foundation's CEO, cited a 10% increase on average in financial reimbursement for adoption.

"It tells the employees that we're a family-friendly organization, that there's equity if we're offering benefits for families that are formed through birth, we also want to give benefits to families that are formed through adoption," she said, "and it creates a sense of loyalty and retention and goodwill."

She said it's important for employers to consider foster and adoption benefits, not only for its employees, but the good of the community.

"It says to the community that we understand that there are lots of ways that our families are formed," she said, "and we can provide the kind of supports that a family might need to move to that next phase of being a unified and thriving family."

According to the National Council for Adoption, 2022 saw the fewest number of adoptions from foster care since 2015, around 53,000 children nationwide.


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It is the first day of summer and time for a global event called the "World's Largest Swimming Lesson."

Albuquerque's West Mesa Aquatic Center will offer 400 free lessons to build awareness about drowning prevention.

Julia Romero, swim lesson coordinator for the city, said nearly 60% of Americans have said they either cannot swim or don't have basic swimming skills. She noted participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning among children younger than 4 by up to 88%.

"What's really cool about this event is free swim lessons are happening across the whole world -- not just America, but different parts of the world too," Romero emphasized. "We're getting to play our part in it, too."

Romero noted New Mexico has the 11th highest drowning rate among states per 100,000 people, despite having only 292 square miles of water, compared with 40,000 in Michigan, which ranks 39th in the country. Since the World's Largest Swimming Lesson began, the organization said more than 380,000 children and adults in 53 countries on six continents have participated.

What it lacks in open bodies of water, New Mexico makes up in swimming pools. Accounting for population, Romero said the state has the third-highest number, behind Arizona and Florida.

"It's just not very frequent that you see an open body of water," Romero observed. "I don't think parents and other individuals -- grandparents, families -- know how accessible swim lessons actually are to them."

Romero frequently hears from older adults about a parent or grandparent who once threw them into a body of water as a kind of test, but swimming lessons were not a priority.

"They never actually learned how to properly save their own lives if they were ever in the water," Romero pointed out. "There's huge need on just education on water safety."

City swimming instructors will offer free 30-minute lessons from 9 a.m. until noon at the Aquatic Center on a first-come, first-served basis. Romero said swimming lessons will be offered by the city through July, with signups available in both English and Spanish at play.cabq.go.