I have a new six year old patient with type 1 diabetes, diagnosed last week. Her mom has type 1, so she noticed polyuria and polydipsia right away. The child’s A1c was 6.2% and she is doing well on two units of Lantus per day. Do you know of any studies that might prolong her honeymoon phase?

The only thing shown to prolong honeymoon phase is good control during that time. It sounds like you are using a minimum amount of insulin to help with this. There are experimental trials available that are using Cellcept in newly diagnosed patients to see if this immunosupressant can be of benefit. This would be available through a study group called TrialNet. You can ask your local pediatric endocrinologist who is participating in California.

JTL
Additional comments from Dr. Stuart Brink:

The best studies talk about “resting the damaged beta cells” by optimizing glucose control shortly after diagnosis with appropriate insulin management. There are not many large controlled prospective studies. The best care is generally provided by dedicated pediatric diabetes specialists with assistance of nurses, educators, dieticians and similar multidisciplinary teams working with same philosophy of care.

SB