Childhood Diabetes

Experts report that about 13,000 children develop Type 1 (insulin-dependent) childhood diabetes each year -- more than 14 times the number diagnosed with childhood AIDS.

The cases of diabetes is also more than the annual incidence of other childhood diseases, including muscular dystrophy, childhood cancers, and leukemia.

Type 1 diabetes affects more than 1 million people in the U.S. alone, including about 176,500 people under age 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas stops making insulin, a hormone necessary to convert the food we eat into energy for the body.

Treatment requires a strict regimen that typically includes a carefully calculated diet, planned physical activity, home blood glucose testing several times per day, and multiple daily insulin injections or the use of an insulin pump.

In the more common Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes, the pancreas can still make insulin and treatment typically includes diet control, exercise, home blood glucose testing, and in some cases, oral medication and/or insulin.

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