As Diabetes Rises In Kids, So Do Treatment Challenges

More kids than ever have Type 2 diabetes, the kind that used to be referred to as the adult-onset variety.

It's a sign of our sedentary, calorie-rich times. Childhood obesity, a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, is commonplace. For teens, about half of new cases of diabetes are now Type 2 compared with just 3 percent a few decades back.

So what's the best way to treat the growing number of kids? Results from a study, involving nearly 700 children over an average of almost four years, are downright discouraging.

Only about half of the children, ages 10-17 at the study start, were able to control their blood sugar adequately with the generic drug metformin (the only diabetes pill approved for kids) by itself. A combination of metformin and Avandia (a drug whose use has been severely restricted because of safety issues since the study started in 2004) did a little better — about 60 percent got their blood sugar under control.

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