Diabetes in young children is on the rise

The number of diabetic patients is rising worldwide at an alarming rate, mostly for type 2 diabetes. The majority of children and young adults which are diagnosed with diabetes are affected by type 1 diabetes. This requires a lifetime of care, management and caution to ensure that the condition doesn’t leave these diabetic children with serious complications.

At Diabeter, we help our patients and their families understand how to successfully manage diabetes in young adults and teenagers.

As a child with type one diabetes – and as a parent of this child – you have to know a lot about this disease. The more you become an expert at it, the better. Education, learning how to deal with the disease, is indispensable. It gives the patient the chance to be the master of the disease (instead of the other way around), a condition for leading a healthy and a good life. It makes you reach two important goals: you feel better and you prevent medical problems and complications.

Direction and coaching

But diabetes is a complicated disease. This means that proper direction and coaching are needed for the medical and psychological aspects of the disease. This is just what Diabeter wants to offer. At Diabeter, children and young adults find a team of doctors, nurses, dieticians, psychologists and other professionals all specialized in type 1 diabetes and totally committed to diabetes care. They are there for the person with diabetes: the child, the family and the surroundings (such as school, relatives and friends).

Towards independence

Diabetes care is different for every phase of life. With children the role of the parents is understandably of great importance. This changes with age. We help you to slowly progress towards independence in the diabetes treatment and guide young adults who have learned to take their own responsibility for their diabetes care.

Preventing problems

The medical aspects of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents are especially important because they have a lifetime ahead of them. Good diabetes management not only makes you feel better and function better, but helps keep your health good now and later and prevent diabetes complications. Taking good care of yourself is "saving for later"! Currently, the most important measure of regulation is the HbA1c value and the TIR (Time In Range). The HbA1c says something about the average value of the blood glucose level over the past 2 to 3 months. Target value in children is lower than 7.5% (< 58 mmol/l.), preferably even lower with an insulin pump. If you manage to achieve and maintain this value, the chances of growing up without diabetes complications are significantly increased.

With the Time in Range (TIR) we look at how many percent of the day you manage to achieve blood sugars between 4.0 and 10 mmol/l. The higher this percentage, the better you are at achieving the goal. The higher this percentage is, the better your blood sugars are.

At Diabeter we treat more than 3,000 people with type 1 diabetes, in our five diabetes centers in Rotterdam, Schiphol, Deventer, Groningen and Eindhoven.

In 2019, the group of patients aged 0 - 18 years under treatment with us achieved an average HBA1c of 7.7% (61 mmol/mol).

50.6% of them achieved an HbA1c of below 7.5% (<58 mmol/mol). We are extremely proud of all our patients and their parents who work so hard to achieve these results. 

It is not for nothing that our mission statement is: 'Towards a future without diabetes complications'.