My six year old son has nephrotic syndrome, and a month after he started on steroids, he went into diabetic ketoacidosis and is on insulin. How are these two connected? Will my son recover from diabetes once his steroids are stopped?

Steroids stress the body’s ability to produce insulin and so may cause diabetes. The fact that your son went into DKA [diabetic ketoacidosis] suggests that his ability to produce insulin was already compromised and that he was in the preclinical phase of type 1A (autoimmune) diabetes.

You should talk to his doctors about getting a full antibody screen for anti-GAD 65, anti-ICA 512, and anti-insulin. If any one of these is positive, it would confirm that there was an underlying problem that was triggered by the steroids. If this turns out to be the case, it is very unlikely that he will ever be able to manage without some form of insulin supplementation.

DOB