How are children with type 1 diabetes cared for differently than adults?

How are children with type 1 diabetes cared for differently than adults?

Anne Peters, MD, FACP, CDE (Professor and Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs, USC Keck School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: How are children with type 1 diabetes cared for differently than adults? and more...

Children with diabetes- if they get type 1 diabetes when they're young- are treated a little bit differently than adults because we're afraid that too many low blood sugar reactions will hurt the developing brain. And in adults, we expect most adults with type 1 diabetes to have two to three mild low blood sugar reactions a week. So we know that using insulin to keep blood sugar levels normal means sometimes people will be a little high and sometimes a little low. With kids, we don't want them to be a little low most of the time, so these standards- the hemoglobin A1c, that average blood sugar test- is kept a bit higher in kids. And early on, obviously, the parents give the insulin. But by the age of four or so, lots of kids can give their own insulin, and they wear pumps, and they do all sorts of things just like adults. So I'm more impressed by kids than I thought I'd be because they do pretty darn well and I think the hardest thing about being a kid with diabetes is being an adolescent with diabetes. And that's a really tough age, and anyone who happens to have an adolescent child knows what that's like. And really most kids rebel and their blood sugars go higher and they get through adolescence and they settle down once they get a bit older, so it's always a tough age.