Ten years ago, there would hardly be any schoolchildren diagnosed with the form of diabetes acquired with age.

But the number has been going up - alarmingly - because kids have chosen to kick ball on the iPad rather than the playground, gorge on fast food and become obese, say doctors.

This form of the disease, called Type II diabetes, which accounts for 90 per cent of all diabetes cases, is caused by excess bodyweight and hereditary factors. It leads to less or poor quality insulin production while Type I diabetes manifests suddenly in children when insulin production stops altogether.

Tirthankar Chaudhury, a senior diabetes and endocrinology consultant at the Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, said more and more schoolchildren were being diagnosed with Type II diabetes. "This trend is directly related to their sedentary lifestyle and food habits."

Records show 10 years ago there used to be one child among 100 Type II diabetes patients. Now that number has gone up to three. An equal number is on the borderline with a condition called impaired glucose tolerance, say doctors.

An endocrinologist said that in 2000, only one to two per cent of patients detected with diabetes in the city would be in the 20-30 age group. But now that number has jumped to five to 10 per cent. In the same period, five per cent of patients would be in the 30-40 age group. Now, that number has gone up to 20 per cent, he said.

"Every two to three weeks, we get students of Class VIII to XII who test positive for Type II diabetes," Chaudhury said. "To counter this trend physical exercise and outdoor games must be encouraged. Schools can create a compulsory games period daily as it would burn out fat." He said kids with diabetic parents were more vulnerable. "If both parents are diabetic, there's a 90 per cent chance that the child, too, would get the disease."

One must look out for fat accumulating in the tummy because it releases toxic chemicals in the body. "Because of these chemicals, the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin or the quality of insulin it produces gets affected," endocrinologist Binayak Sinha said. "This leads to a 'insulin resistance' or a relative lack of insulin. The job of insulin is to inject glucose into individual cells, which is their fuel. Without the fuel, the organs begin to malfunction and the glucose level in the blood increases."

Chaudhury said parents should look out for signs of fatigue, especially among those who were obese and fell in the hereditary risk group. These children often developed a "dark and velvety patch" around the neck called "acanthosis nigricans", he said.

"If they are found to have a blood glucose level between 141 and 199 mg/dl, technically in the pre-diabetes stage, the situation can be managed with medication and counselling and diabetes prevented from setting in. But if there's no intervention, there are high chances of these kids developing diabetes."