Pediatrics for Parents

Children and Diabetes

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer

In recent years, health care professionals have warned Americans about a "diabetes epidemic." Indeed, reports from the 2003 Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that 17 million Americans now have diabetes, with 90-95% of them having Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult onset diabetes. Of special concern to parents regarding this epidemic is that children ‚ who in the past were rarely being diagnosed with Type 2 ‚ are now being diagnosed at alarming rates.

Though both are "diabetes," Types 1 and 2 have very different causes and some different treatments. Type 1 diabetes was formerly known as juvenile diabetes because it used to strike the majority of people with diabetes under age forty. It is an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Insulin is required by the body to use glucose, the simple sugar that most foods are broken down into by our digestive system. Without insulin, the body starves to death. Because of this factor, people with Type 1 diabetes must take insulin daily, either through injection or an insulin pump.

Type 2 diabetes is by far the more common condition. Over 90% of people with diabetes have Type 2. People with Type 2 diabetes gradually lose the ability to control the level of sugar in their blood because they are resistant to insulin. Unfortunately, insulin resistance is often caused by obesity. It is because our society is being confronted with more childhood obesity that more children are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, which is treated with diet, medication and sometimes insulin.

Parents, however, should not despair about these statistics. Rather, they have the ability to help prevent Type 2 diabetes in their children. By encouraging healthy eating habits and an active life style, parents can help to keep their children from becoming obese. In a culture consumed with passive activities like playing video games and watching TV combioned with junk food at fast food restaurants and convenience stores, parents need to make a conscious choice to be advocates and models for their children's well-being.

Likewise, when children are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes today, their prospects for a healthy, happy life are better than ever. Research shows that people who are able to keep their blood sugars in a normal range for long periods of time are able to avoid the complications often associated with diabetes (including heart and kidney disease). Children with diabetes are able to monitor their blood sugars with small meters that can give a blood sugar reading in up to ten seconds.

Insulin Pump therapy is also a cutting edge approach to maintaining tight blood sugar control for children with Type 1 diabetes. Insulin pumps are small machines (about the size of a cell phone or beeper) with tiny computers that deliver continuous short-acting insulin through a thin plastic tube inserted just under the skin. People who wear pumps clip them onto belts or wear them in pockets. Recent studies point to insulin pump therapy as the best way to control Type 1 diabetes and that pumps may be safe for children as young as toddlers.

Because insulin pumps deliver a continuous flow of insulin, they resemble a working pancreas (the organ that secretes insulin) more closely than injections of long-acting insulin. Pumps allow for the flexibility of skipping meals, eating bigger or smaller meals than expected and indulging in occasional treats. Because any parent knows that it is difficult to predict what or how much your child will eat, the flexibility of a pump can be a true life saver for a child with diabetes.

Indeed, diabetes is an epidemic in the United States ‚ and around the world ‚ today, but beneath the statistics lay some causes for hope. When we make healthy choices for our children, we are doing our part to help prevent Type 2 diabetes from developing. And for families with a child who has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, there has been no better time for benefiting from scientific and technological improvements that make living with diabetes that much more manageable.

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer is the author of Insulin Pump Therapy Demystified (Marlowe & Co.) available at www.insulinpumpbook.com. She is the host of a monthly internet chat program called "Real Life Pumpers" on www.diabeteststation.com. An educator and writer, Gabrielle writes for magazines and websites about health, spirituality, arts and culture and education.