Even with constant care, attention, supervision and diet, my 10 year old son, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age four, continues to have highs and lows (3.1-28.8 mmol/L [56-528 mg/dl] ), has been hospitalized a few times, and continues to have trouble with weight gain. Otherwise, he is a normal active little boy. Is this normal? Can you give any advice or suggestions as to what might be wrong and why?

I understand your troubles and your concern about your son. Controlling the blood sugar levels in a kid is a tough challenge, and multiple daily injections is the best therapeutic approach. Quite recently, insulin pump therapy has become popular among even very young kids to stabilize blood sugar levels, but your family would need to have very close contact with a diabetes center comfortable in using pump therapy in with children and adolescents. Please discuss all treatment options with you son’s diabetes team.

Nevertheless, education is by far most important in achieving good metabolic control. To this aim, our website can make the difference through its easy and fast access to news and information regarding diabetes and its management. It can help you keep up-date through our answers to various questions and topics. As your son grows up, he will be gradually able to take more responsibility towards self-monitoring and self-management. This will be helpful for better metabolic control.

Last but not least, soon there will be new devices and therapeutical opportunities that will make the lives of children with diabetes easier and safer.

MS