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The Honeymoon Period

Published:
24-May-2005

By Russell Turner

There is no cure for diabetes. Type 1 diabetes never goes away. Children sometimes experience what doctors call a "honeymoon period" right after type 1 diabetes has been diagnosed. During the "honeymoon period" diabetes may appear to go away for a period of a few months to a year. During this time the remaining insulin producing cells in your child's pancreas are working harder to supply enough insulin for their body. While this is happening, your child may take little or no insulin; however, this does not mean that diabetes has gone away. When the remaining insulin-producing cells have been destroyed, the honeymoon period will end, and your child will need to take insulin for the rest of their lives.

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What Is Diabetes?

The Honeymoon Period

Type 1 diabetes occurs when about 90 percent of your child's insulin producing cells have been destroyed. If symptoms of type 1 diabetes show when your child has, for example, an illness, virus or cold, once the illness goes away your child's insulin needs may decrease. During this time the number of insulin producing cells remaining may be enough, for the moment, to meet your child's insulin needs again.

But the process that has destroyed 90 percent of your child's insulin producing cells will, in the end, destroy the remaining insulin-producing cells. And as that destruction continues, the amount of injected insulin your child needs will increase, and ultimately your child will be completely dependent on insulin injections.
Researchers now think that it is important for people newly diagnosed with diabetes to continue taking some insulin by injection even during the honeymoon period. These researchers now have some scientific evidence to suggest that doing so will help preserve the few remaining insulin producing cells for a while longer.