First-Ever Guidelines Issued For Treating Type 2 Diabetes In Kids

Share Button

diabeticFrom Your Health Journal…..”A very important article recently from US News & World Report via HealthDay by Serena Gordon entitled First-Ever Guidelines Issued For Treating Type 2 Diabetes In Kids. I do encourage all of you to visit the UN News site to read about these new guidelines. I find it important to spread the word on such topic, and always try to send traffic to other great sites like US News. This article points to the the fact that for the first time ever, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued new guidelines for the management of type 2 diabetes in children and teenagers. Most pediatricians only dealt with Type 1 diabetes, but due to the rise in Type 2 diabetes in children, a change was needed. As many of you know, Type 2 diabetes used to be called ‘adult onset’ diabetes. In our modern day era, where many children are now obese or overweight, many young kids now get this disease, which is environmental. Weight doesn’t play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes, but it’s possible that someone with type 1 could be overweight, making an immediate diagnosis of the type of diabetes very hard. Please visit the US News web site (link provided below) to view the complete article.”

From the article…..

For the first time ever, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued guidelines for the management of type 2 diabetes in children and teenagers aged 10 to 18.

Until recently, pediatricians have mostly had to deal with type 1 diabetes, which has a different cause and usually a different management than type 2 diabetes. But, today, due largely to the rise in childhood obesity, as many as one in three children diagnosed with diabetes has type 2.

“Pediatricians and pediatric endocrinologists are used to dealing with type 1 diabetes. Most have had no formal training in the care of children with type 2,” said one of the authors of the new guidelines, Dr. Janet Silverstein, division chief of pediatric endocrinology at the University of Florida, in Gainesville.

“The major reason for the guidelines is that there’s been an increase in overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, with more type 2 diabetes in that population, making it important for general pediatricians, as well as endocrinologists to have structured guidelines to follow,” she said.

For example, it can be very difficult to distinguish immediately whether or not a child has type 1 or type 2 diabetes, especially if a child is overweight. The only way to tell for sure is a test for islet antibodies. Because type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, a child or teen with type 1 will have islet antibodies that destroy the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. But, it can take weeks to get the results of these tests, according to Silverstein.

Weight doesn’t play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes, but it’s possible that someone with type 1 could be overweight, making an immediate diagnosis of the type of diabetes very hard. If someone with type 1 diabetes is mistakenly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and given oral medications — such as metformin — instead of the insulin they must have, they can get very sick, very quickly.

To read the complete article…..Click here