Endocrinology-Diabetes Questions Children and Diabetes

Can I keep my child from developing Type 1 diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes runs in my family (I don't have it though). Is there anything I can do to keep my children from getting it?

7 Answers

We are barely starting to understand the heredity of Type I diabetes. We know a few things: If the father has it, it is more likely to get it than if the mother has it. If there are autoimmune diseases in the family like Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, it is slightly higher.
Can you prevent it? Pre-emptive immunotherapy is available and at this time not recommended in most children unless they have high levels of "anti-Islet-cell antibodies" in the blood. Eeven then it is not without side effects
Unfortunately, we do not have any preventive intervention to type 1 diabetes yet.
You cannot really prevent type 1 diabetes. You can prevent type 2 -- reduce sugars in kid's diet and increase physical activity.
Regrettably there are no proven methods to prevent the development of Type 1 diabetes which is usually associated with damage to the islet cells in the pancreas. The precise cause and triggers for the islet cell damage remain unknown. However there is no certainty your child will get Type 1 as the inheritance in Type 1 is much less than in Type 2 diabetes
If there is a predisposition to Type 1 diabetes and your child is pre-programed to have it would be difficult to completely avoid it but in my experience and most of Type 1 Diabetes Patients have severe Vitamin D deficiency at the time of Diagnosis. Although there is not yet been any evidence yet to connect the two together, I suggest my Patients to keep their Vitamin D levels above 50. For predisposed People it is also advisable to avoid burdening their Pancreas with sugar and alcohol.
We don't know the answer to that. DM1 is a combination of inheritance and environmental factors. You can get tests that will screen for the inheritance portion but even if you have the genes only < 50% of the people get it. So there is an environmental factor but what it is we don't know. Certain viruses may trigger the genetic factor as may certain gut germs. We don't have a prevention at present. Just feed them right and keep them healthy for now.
Although investigation in this area is underway at this time there are no FDA approved mean for preventing type I diabetes. If there is family history of type I diabetes there is a relatively higher risk but it is not like the one in type II diabetes.