Academy of Pediatricians issues first-ever guidelines for child diabetes

With the alarming rise of juvenile diabetes, pediatricians face a broad set of challenges in helping kids to stay healthy and avoid the life-altering illness.

The American Academy of Pediatricians is set to release clinical guidelines for juvenile type 2 diabetes--the first step toward acknowledging just how big of a problem the disease is for children and a preventative measure against skyrocketing obesity rates.

The recommendations

In addition to helping children get more exercise and improve their diets, the guidelines outline how some children might need to start a temporary round of insulin therapy or begin a course of treatment with diabetes drug metformin.

"Diabetes is an expensive disease, and complications are even more expensive," Janine Sanchez, director of pediatric diabetes at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, told Fox News.

The guidelines also note that type 2 diabetes in children may pose more problems than it does for adults with the disease, and that these children are especially at risk for obesity.

A growing problem

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 17 percent of American children under the age of 20 are at risk for the disease, and obesity rates in this population have about tripled since 1980.

Type 2 diabetes can cause or increase the risk for numerous health complications, including kidney disease, heart attacks, strokes, blindness and nerve damage. Sanchez says that the health problems also seem to happen faster in diabetic children than they do in adults.

"We definitely want to make sure that these kids are taken care of because in the end we are all going to pay for that," Sanchez said.

The guidelines are published in the journal Pediatrics.

Source: Fox News