Paediatric Diabetes

When children get diabetes, fears for their safety can loom large.  There are challenges with lifestyle changes—often for the whole family— but we are here to help. At the Diabetes Clinic at Al Jalila Children’s, our goal is to help you and your child learn to manage their diabetes with confidence. Our team of experts will partner with your family to provide advanced treatment options and encourage independence. We are dedicated to empowering children to lead healthy lives through safe, modern and effective diabetes care.

Our team includes:

Specialists in Diabetes and Endocrinology – to determine the right course of treatment for your child. They will be continually monitoring your child’s diagnosis.

Diabetes Educator – will be able to show you and your child how to manage day to day living with diabetes using blood glucose monitors, sensors, insulin injections, CGMS and insulin pumps. They will also be able to help you make adjustments to your insulin doses if blood glucose levels are running to high or low. They will be there to support you and your child throughout their childhood and adolescent life.

Child Life Specialist – use normalised play to help patients and their families understand their experiences within the hospital. They are able to provide medical play to help overcome fears and anxieties before, during and after procedures.

Dietitians – are here to help you adapt to the challenges of eating well with diabetes, including adjusting diet for sport and other physical activity. To help understand carbohydrate counting and create an individualized meal plan for your child.

Psychologist – to help make assessments of social, emotional and psychological wellbeing as a family due to the diagnosis of diabetes and helping you as a family to cope with it. Also helping your child with adherence to diabetes treatment.

At Al Jalila Children’s Diabetes Clinic, we provide comprehensive care to infants, children and adolescents with all types of diabetes, including:

Type 1 Diabetes: where the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin.

Type 2 Diabetes: where the body doesn’t produce enough insulin, or the body’s cells don’t react to insulin.

Monogenic Diabetes: About 1 in 50 children with diabetes has a genetic cause.  These cases may be diagnosed even in little babies, but can occur at any age.  It is important to recognize these cases as many will respond to oral medication.  These rare genetic forms of diabetes are caused by a mutation (or change) in a single gene. If one or both parents are gene carriers, any future child they have has a 25-50 percent chance of being affected.

Secondary Diabetes: This includes Cystic Fibrosis-related Diabetes (CFRD), a unique type of diabetes that is common in people with Cystic Fibrosis and  Steroid-induced Diabetes where diabetes usually results from steroid treatment of another health condition such as arthritis.

Post-pancreatectomy Diabetes: Diabetes due to removal of all or most of the pancreas—the surgical removal of the entire pancreas—is a special form of type 1 diabetes.

What makes us different?

• The Paediatric Diabetes Clinic at Al Jalila Children’s is one among the most advanced paediatric facilities in the UAE in manage diabetes in children.
• The Clinic has a handpicked team of experts consisting of specialists in diabetology and endocrinology, a diabetes educator, dietitian and nutritionist, and a psychologist trained in some of the leading hospitals around the world.
• The Clinic enjoys the uniqueness of being part of a full-fledged world-class hospital where every patient is assessed by a multidisciplinary and highly experienced paediatric consulting team that offers a 360-degree evaluation and treatment under one roof, resulting in a definitive and clear medical solution.