January 30, 2001
Other Illnesses
Question from Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, USA:
My two year old son, diagnosed with type 1 at fourteen months, had gastroesophageal reflux which resolved itself around nine months of age, and I have recently become aware of other children diagnosed with type 1 at a young age (at your web site and through correspondence with parents of other children with diabetes) who also had reflux (two of them requiring surgery). Do you know of any correlation of reflux in infants and type 1 diabetes?
I have often wondered if switching my child to cow’s milk at nine months (due to his voracious appetite and to minimize the reflux) could have triggered the early onset although I am aware that research does not conclusively support this.
Answer:
I expect the reflux and diabetes question can’t be answered. Diabetes is rare and reflux is common so it would impossible to do a true case control study without hundreds of thousands of dollars that no one will fund.
As for cow’s milk and diabetes, you are right. The jury is out. If there is a risk, it is seemingly early, not at nine months as I understand the latest data. Don’t fret.
LD
