Treatment of Diabetes in Children: Effective Options and Integration into Practice

This presentation discusses the different effective treatment options for diabetes in children, including metformin, thiazolidinedione, and lifestyle modifications. It also explores how these options can be integrated into practice through seminars, nursing curriculum, and publications.

Treatment of diabetes in children
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INTRODUCTION
• Diabetes is a condition in which there is excess glucose in the
blood(Atkinson, Eisenbarth, & Michels, 2014). There are two types of
diabetes which are Type 1 Diabetes and the Type 2 Diabetes.
• Type 1 diabetes is where the body or the pancreas cannot produce
insulin hormone while in type 2 diabetes, the body is insensitive to
the insulin produced(Miller et al., 2015).

• According to survey conducted in 2015,the prevalence of T2D rose
from 9 to 23% for a period of 8 years(Nathan, 2015). The population
that was affected the most was the white ethnic children between the
ages of 10-17.
• With the increase in prevalence ,several studies have been carried out
to come up with a lasting solution to the problem.

• According to different randomized controlled trials carried out on the
effectiveness of treating diabetes in children, there have been
different options that the studies have found out to be very effective.
The different options are listed below:

1. Metformin
• Studies have found out the use of metformin in treating children with
diabetes is a very effective option.
• The recommended dose is 500mg
• The dose is however is to be increased by 500mg on a weekly basis
until it reaches the recommended optimal of 2000mg(Rewers et al.,
2014).

• This option is however associated with side effects such as diarrhea
and abdominal pain.
2. Thiazolidinedione.
• This another group of drugs that studies have found out to be very
effective in treatment of diabetes in children.
• It works by increasing the sensitivity of different body parts to insulin
hormone.

• 3.Lifestyle modifications
• Besides medication,studies also found out that modification in
lifestyle is very important.The children should be subjected to a
healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables(Veiseh, Tang, Whitehead,
Anderson, & Langer, 2014) .Exercise is also important and it is
recommended that children should have more than one hour of
physical exercise on a single day.

• Children are also advised to spend less than 2 hours on screens which
are television and computers.

HOW THE TREATMENT OPTIONS CAN
BE INTEGRATED INTO PRACTICE
• To effectively integrate the treatment into practice, there should be
seminars in which there would be demonstrations on how the new
treatment regimens would be used.
• The new methods should also be integrated into the nursing
curriculum where the students will be initially taught the theory part
before they go for practice.

• There should be publication of several journals and books of the same
that should target the nurses who would later implement or integrate
the practice in current practice.

• References
Atkinson, M. A., Eisenbarth, G. S., & Michels, A. W. (2014). Type 1 diabetes. The Lancet,
383(9911), 69-82. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(13)60591-7
Miller, K. M., Foster, N. C., Beck, R. W., Bergenstal, R. M., DuBose, S. N., DiMeglio, L. A., …
Tamborlane, W. V. (2015). Current State of Type 1 Diabetes Treatment in the U.S.: Updated Data
From the T1D Exchange Clinic Registry. Diabetes Care, 38(6), 971-978. doi:10.2337/dc15-0078
Nathan, D. M. (2015). Diabetes. JAMA, 314(10), 1052. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.9536
Rewers, M. J., Pillay, K., De Beaufort, C., Craig, M. E., Hanas, R., Acerini, C. L., & Maahs, D. M.
(2014). Assessment and monitoring of glycemic control in children and adolescents with
diabetes. Pediatric Diabetes, 15(S20), 102-114. doi:10.1111/pedi.12190
Veiseh, O., Tang, B. C., Whitehead, K. A., Anderson, D. G., & Langer, R. (2014). Managing
diabetes with nanomedicine: challenges and opportunities. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery,
14(1), 45-57. doi:10.1038/nrd4477