Nutritional management of children with diabetes mellitus.

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus in children and young adults during the preinsulin era was a severe and rapidly progressive disease. After the discovery and introduction of insulin in 1922, it became possible to keep the diabetic child alive. As additional information concerning the disease accumulated, better methods of treatment were evolved. Advances in the field of nutrition, refinements in the handling of acute complications such as acidosis and coma, introduction of refined and prolonged-acting insulin preparations, and the discovery of potent antibacterial agents which combat intercurrent infections are important factors that have made it possible to improve the health status and increase the life expectancy of the juvenile patient with diabetes mellitus. The insulin-sensitive type of diabetes in children is so different from diabetes in the middle-aged or elderly patient that it requires special consideration. The majority of children and young adult patients are undernourished when the disease is first discovered, and