“How is juvenile diabetes managed in small children? ”

It's a very common question and dilemma but, actually just requires someone to be a parent - and sometimes that means saying no or setting limits. Most importantly is to understand type 1 diabetes in younger kids. Best to be very educated and up-to-date on current management options and engage your child in a developmentally appropriate fashion. I've always used drawing and art to let kids express their ideas and even published some of this in Diabetes Forecast some years ago. Have also lectured on the topic and gotten fantastic audience participation from the doctors and nurses in the audience. If you haven't already seen them, get the Ragnar Hanas Type 1 Diabetes teaching manual and also the Chase/Maahs First Book for Understanding Diabetes pink panther teaching manual since both are
excellent, well written, and up-to-date on psychological and educational aspects of diabetes for parents and for kids as they get more of their own reading skills. You can order them from your local bookstore or online. CWD, children with diabetes, is an excellent online support group for kids and parents too. Life for a Child (LFAC) website has great lists of teaching booklets, some by Lilly and by NovoNordisk, that are written for different age groups with great advice, and pictures and are not only useful for the child with diabetes but also for their peers, teachers, etc. It will give you lots of ideas on how to approach such problems, alternatives to consider, strategies that work, etc. If there is a diabetes camping program operating or a group support system (parents and kids) these are also terrific. And, for sure, talk to your diabetes team to get their ideas about what concerns you, what they have available for support, and what the local situation is in your region. Best of luck and thanks for asking this important question.

Diabetes in young children is very challenging. The basic principles are to learn carbohydrate counting and learn the use of insulin regiment. Since young children are grasers, it is hard to regiment them into fixed meals and snacks. The most reasonable thing to do will be try to regiment the child in a reasonable way without too much restrictions. You need to see a dietician for proficient carbohydrate counting, and learn flexible insulin regiment either using basal bollus regiment or insulin infusion pump therapy. In young children pump therapy may be more advantageous since it gives you more apportunity to bollus every time the child eats. You will also have a better control of blood glucose since you will do more blood glucose testing.
There are also blood glucose sensors to help you with the control of the blood sugar. Some sponsors are integrated to the pump. Some pumps can act close to artificial pancreases.
At this time you have all the above advantage that were not available before. So contact your doctor and discuss about these issue. It should not be difficult to manage any child with diabetes in 2018. Good luck.

It is doable. A visit with a good pediatric-trained registered dietician would be helpful. You do not have to restrict all sweets necessarily. You need to learn to love to eat other things.

Good luck,

LG

Have you read Sugar Surfing? It has some great ideas and directions.
www.sugarsurfing.com

Steve Ponder MD, CDE

Best way is to find an excellent diabetes doc and really learn about diabettes. Peter Chase’s Pink Panther book and Ragnar Hanas’ teaching manual are the best. Lots of blood glucose monitoring to allow analysis to check the variability and allow you to optimize being reactive and more importantl, proactive with either sn MDI rdgimen or a pump. Childrenwithdiabetes website is slso excellent for parents and also for kids

You need to speak to your child’s diabetes team about the specifics. All children should eat healthy and eat sweets as a treat rather than anytime they want. A child with diabetes may eat the same thing as other children as long as they take insulin for any carbohydrates that they eat. I think that your diabetes care team should be able to help you with this.

The treatment of juvenile diabetes (typically type 1 diabetes mellitus) is usually insulin injections. But it depends on her pancreatic function; I have some patients recently diagnosed (in honeymoon period) that we can control with strict diet and exercise, but eventually, they will need the insulin injections. Type 2 diabetes was in the past the diabetes that affected older people, but unfortunately, due to rising obesity in kids, it is now diagnosed at a young age. This one can be treated with diet and exercise and sometimes with oral medications.