While Type 2 diabetes is controllable with diet and exercise, few patients of any age make these changes.
``It's very hard for kids,'' said Barbara Linder, a pediatric endocrinologist with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). ``This is a society based on TV and video games and fast food.''
Doctors are calling for community initiatives that bring physical education and recess back to schools, make school lunches healthier, and increase awareness in all socioeconomic groups of the benefits of exercise and low-fat food.
``We just have to do a heck of a lot of work to change the way society is going,'' said Arlan Rosenbloom, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Florida College of Medicine who is preparing a position paper on children and Type 2 diabetes for the ADA.
Doctors in this country and other parts of the world are reporting significant increases in the disease, primarily in minority children, but researchers do not know how widespread Type 2 diabetes is in this age group.
``Clearly, we need to do more research,'' said Linder, who is organizing a summer research conference.
Doctors once were taught that all children with diabetes had Type 1, or what was called juvenile diabetes. It affects one out of every 600 children. In this form of the disease, the pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone that regulates the body's use of glucose, a type of sugar. Without regular injections of insulin, Type 1 diabetics die.
