August 16, 2008
Research: Causes and Prevention
Question from Durham, North Carolina, USA:
My eight-month-old daughter has the high risk genes (DR3/DR4) and I (her mother) have had type 1 diabetes for 26 years (diagnosed at age seven). We are part of The TEDDY study, which takes blood draws every three months to check for autoantibodies. Needless to say, I am terribly anxious and want to do everything possible to lower the risk. Aside from exclusive breast feeding and Vitamin D, what else can I do? We actually introduced gluten (via barley cereal) at six and a half months, but now I am worried that we should have avoided gluten altogether. What is your opinion about this? And, what about giving cod liver oil? I realize that nothing is surefire, but again, if there’s even a slight chance that something might help (and not hurt), we would like to try.
Answer:
Avoiding wheat products and exclusively breast feeding seems to provide some protection. Exactly how much is not known. It sounds like you are doing all the right things and participating in a research study that monitors your child using the best current knowledge. You should stay in touch with your research team. Do they have a support system as part of the study? If not, then you may find some other parents in similar situation in our Chat Rooms or Mailing Lists, the ADA, JDRF, diabetesHealth and dLife web sites.
SB
