Type 2 Diabetes
Disease Information
Overview
Our Type 2 Diabetes Program provides the support of a multidisciplinary team for every patient that we treat. The patient and family are at the core of that team and use the support of our physicians, diabetes nurse educators, nutritionists, psychologists, social workers and resource specialists to get what they need to achieve their diabetes management goals. Diabetes affects the whole family. We are here for families.
--Erinn Rhodes, MD, MPH, director, Type 2 Diabetes Program
Discovering that your child has diabetes can be upsetting and stressful for the whole family. On these pages, we’ll give you the basic information and skills you’ll need to care for your child, including an understanding of the major forms of the disease—especially type 2 diabetes.
- Type 2 diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder resulting from the body's inability to properly use or produce enough insulin. It’s a chronic disease with no known cure.
- Type 2 diabetes accounts for the majority of cases of diabetes in adults but only rarely presents in children and adolescents. However, cases of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescentsare being diagnosed more frequently particularly among American Indians, African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Asian/Pacific Islander Americans.
- Obesity is an important risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
- About 25.8 million people of all ages in the United States have diabetes; only about 215,000 people younger than 20 years had diabetes—type 1 or type 2—in the United States in 2010.
- During 2002–2005, 3,600 youth were newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes annually.
- Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, nontraumatic lower-limb amputations, and new cases of blindness among adults in the United States.
- Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease and stroke.
- Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
How Children’s Hospital Boston approaches type 2 diabetes
Children’s Type 2 Diabetes Program is a specialty program within our Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) Program. The program focuses on the special needs of patients with—or at risk for—type 2 diabetes and other disorders associated with insulin resistance.
Children’s has been ranked second in the nation in Diabetes by U.S. News & World Report. We provide comprehensive services for infants, children, adolescents and young adults with all types of diabetes.
Our services include:
- diagnostic evaluation
- management of the acute complications of diabetes
- long-term management and follow-up care
Our team understands the physical and emotional challenges diabetes presents for both child and family—and we’re here to help every step of the way.
Type 2 diabetes: Reviewed by Erinn Rhodes, MD, MPH
© Children’s Hospital Boston, 2012
| Children's patient featured on PBS series about type 2 diabetes |
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Minnie Ortiz, a patient of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Optimal Weight for Life Program, was featured on a new PBS Web video series called Living with My Type 2. Here’s her introductory video, where she talks about not even knowing what type 2 diabetes was before she was diagnosed with it and how, after the death of her mother left her without someone to talk with, she writes in her journal to express the concerns she has about her health. |
| If you come from far away, we can help |
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As an international pediatrics center, we care for young patients from all over the world. Our International Center assists families residing outside the United States: We facilitate the medical review of patient records; coordinate appointment scheduling; and help families with customs and immigration, transportation, hotel and housing accommodations. |
#1 ranked pediatric hospital in the nation. Learn more
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