My 17 year old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was nine years old. We recently moved and the new doctor ran a lot of new laboratory tests. When we went back to get the results, she told us that my daughter does not have diabetes any more. Is this possible or should we get another doctor? I told her to stop taking her insulin and checking her blood sugar, but the school nurse disagrees and told me to get another opinion.

This sounds rather strange to me also. I would suggest that you call her original doctor who made the diagnosis and have the current doctor and the former doctor confer with each other. If your child had a type of diabetes called MODY (Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young ), then it could be that she can stop insulin. She’d still have diabetes, but the treatment needed is not usually insulin. If this were classical type 1 diabetes, then there is no such “cure.” Similarly, if your child had type 2 diabetes and not type 1 diabetes, treatment with food and exercise may sometimes cut way down the need for insulin. This is not a cure for diabetes but merely appropriate treatment. Either way, I would have the two doctors confer and then try to decide what is going on. If necessary, you may consider getting a third opinion perhaps with Dr. Morey Haymond in Houston.

SB