“Why do some children develop diabetes around their adolescent years?”

There are different types of diabetes ... 1 and 2. So that is step 1 is determining if the pancreas has no function at all (basically burned out) -this is type 1. Type 2 typically develops in people who are overweight and start to develop insulin resistance from poor diet.

Adolescence is a time of hormonal changes and especially Growth Hormone increases. Growth Hormone increases the insulin needs and if the pancreatic insulin producing cells are unable to compensate for this increased need diabetes will occur. Normally, this is not a problem, but if an adolescent has antibodies to insulin producing cells; the number of cells is deficient for responding to this. The other now more common problem is obesity increasing insulin resistance adding to the increased Growth Hormone level the pancreas is overwhelmed and cannot produce enough insulin.

It depends on what type of diabetes you are asking. Type 2 Diabetes mellitus was considered to affect older people associated with obesity, however, over the last 10 years more adolescents have been diagnosed with it secondary to increasing rates of obesity. On the other hand, type 1 diabetes mellitus can affect a wide range of children, from 2 years of age until 18 years of age.