Insulin Pumps Deemed Safe For Diabetic Children

Filed in archive Treatment on October 29, 2006

For busy adults, insulin pumps can provide a freedom previously unheard of. But many people have been reluctant to let children experience this same situation, fearing that the pumps may not be safe for young ones. But it seems this opinion is changing.

With proper training and follow-up, continuous insulin infusion delivered via a portable pump provides a "durable" mode of treatment for children and adolescents with type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes, according to a long-term study of 161 children who initiated insulin pump therapy between 1998 and 2001.

Over 80 percent of the children stayed on pump therapy for up to 8.8 years, Dr. Lori M. B. Laffel and colleagues from Joslin Diabetes Center found. Study subjects had an average age of 14.1 years when they started on the insulin pump and 71 percent were girls.

Although the study was skewed somewhat, with most of the participants being female and over 14 years of age, it does provide a sound opinion to base a decision on. Would you let your child use an insulin pump?

(Photo Source: Ian Blumer)