October 18, 2000
Daily Care
Question from Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
My 11 year old nephew lives in Russia and was diagnosed with type 1 a month ago. I cannot submit the exact number for his blood glucose level, but it is very high. He is getting five insulin shots every day. Now his level is 10 mmol/L [180 mg/dl] which is still very high. After being on insulin shots for almost one and one-half months, is it possible for him to switch to the pills? Is it possible that he will overgrow the illness some day when he gets older?
Answer:
Unfortunately, children develop type�1 diabetes which can only be treated with insulin. Tablets are not effective in children. Also, he will not outgrow his diabetes and will need to take insulin for the rest of his life. As long as he is controlling his diabetes with insulin, blood glucose monitoring, exercise and diet, he should have a good quality of life. It sounds as though he and his family are just getting used to his diabetes and are still needing to work out what his insulin dose should be.
JS
