February 28, 2001
Daily Care
Question from Devon, England:
My 11 year old daughter has had type�1 diabetes for two years. Over the last year, she has struggled to control her sugar levels usually about 20 mmol/L [360 mg/dl], and her insulin dosage has increased (now 54 units in the morning and 35 units in the evening). Our local consultant resulted in a comment that she may be insulin resistant. I am know in a state of panic trying to understand what this means in terms of her health outlook. All references to “insulin resistance” tends to point to patients about to or already have type 2 diabetes. Could you please shed some light on this?
Answer:
Ninety units is quite a lot of insulin. Some thoughts to consider:
Who is giving the insulin? Are you sure she gets every dose? (If I offend, it comes from 25 years and several thousand children with diabetes, it happens.)
How much does she weigh? Significant obesity does cause insulin resistance.
We see type�2 more and more in kids. Does your family have type 2 diabetes in it? If she is overweight, it could be type 1 and type 2 together. I am convinced we can see that.
Where is she in puberty? Puberty causes some insulin resistance because of the hormones.
All that said, you have to control the diabetes. Keep it up.
LD