Child abuse suspicion masquerading new onset insulin dependent diabetes mellitus

The identification and diagnosis of child abuse is a challenging task to the pediatrician. The increased awareness among both the public and medical personnel, while improving attentiveness to this important subject, can sometimes result in misdiagnosing medical conditions, thus causing distress and delay in required treatment. Numerous reports have described conditions mimicking non-accidental injuries; most of these include dermatological findings related to skin diseases, medical conditions causing pathological fractures, and rare diseases with unusual physical findings. We present a case of a 9.5-year-old child in which the workup for a suspected abusive event led to a delay in the diagnosis of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus later presented as diabetic ketoacidosis.