Children and young people’s diabetes service

Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood glucose levels to become too high.

Type 1 diabetes

In type 1 diabetes, certain cells in the pancreas are destroyed by the immune system and eventually stop producing insulin. Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels and is necessary for life. Without insulin, glucose levels can rise in the blood. If the amount of glucose in the blood is too high over a long period of time, it can seriously damage the body's organs. Whilst it may take many months for the cells to stop making any insulin, the symptoms of type 1 diabetes are rapid, developing over a few weeks. Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented or cured. If you have type 1 diabetes, you will need to take insulin, via injections or an insulin pump, for life. Whilst eating a healthy diet and taking regular exercise will help, taking insulin is still necessary. Type 1 diabetes usually develops before the age of 40 however it can be diagnosed at any age. 

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn't produce enough insulin to function properly or the body’s cells don't react to insulin. This is known as insulin resistance. Type 2 diabetes usually affects people over the age of 40, although increasingly younger people are also being affected. It is more common in people of South Asian, African-Caribbean or Middle Eastern descent. 

Accessing the service

Our service helps children and young people (up to 19 years) with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, monogenic diabetes such as maturity onset diabetes in the young (MODY) and other types of diabetes e.g. steroid related diabetes.

If you're referred to our service, you’ll meet our multidisciplinary team of doctors, specialist nurses, dietitians and clinical psychologists. Most newly diagnosed young people with diabetes need to stay in hospital for a short while. During an inpatient stay, which will be at either Barnet Hospital or the Royal Free Hospital, we provide education and training to help empower you as a family to manage the condition, with specific information about carbohydrate counting, psychological support and insulin dose adjustment. 

The paediatric diabetes specialist nurses will also work closely with your school, college or nursery to ensure staff at these settings are confident and competent in supporting children with diabetes, and offer training at diagnosis and then twice yearly refresher training to schools for this.

We offer continuous glucose monitoring and hybrid closed loop insulin pump technology in our service to all our eligible patients. We recommend that our families routinely upload their devices and can support families to learn how to interpret this information and adjust insulin dosages, in between their clinic appointments.

Regular support is offered following discharge from hospital, you will attend 4 MDT outpatient clinics a year, held at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital. We can also offer video and telephone appointments if necessary. Additional nurse-led, dietetic and psychology appointments can be offered as needed.

All three of our hospitals offer young adult clinics for people aged 16-19. The adult diabetologists, dietitians and diabetes specialist nurses join the paediatric team at these clinics, to promote a smooth move from children’s services to adult services.

We are passionate about supporting children, young people and their families to live full, healthy, happy lives with diabetes and we look forward to working with you.