September 15, 2004
Research: Causes and Prevention
Question from Greensboro, North Carolina, USA:
My husband was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 14. Our two year old son was diagnosed at 15 months. Would you recommend that, when we have our second child, they do not get immunizations or certain immunizations?
Is there someone out there to help those who are at high risk decide on the right things to do to possibly lessen the risk for the child? Of course, there is no guarantee our child would never develop diabetes, I just want to avoid those “possible” triggers for our next child.
Answer:
There is interesting speculation about immunizations associated with producing type 1 diabetes, but the best research suggests that this is not the case. The most recent study, Childhood vaccination and type 1 diabetes, reiterates this finding. There is a much higher risk of getting polio, hepatitis, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps, measles and rubella than of getting diabetes. You should discuss this with your diabetes team. They may be able to offer some antibody screening for your other child, as well as some genetics testing to see if his risks are high or low.
SB
