Symposium: diabetes mellitusDietary management of children with type 1 diabetes

Effective dietary management of children with type 1 diabetes helps to optimize glycaemic control and leads to improvements in clinical and metabolic outcomes. Current recommendations are based on healthy eating principles for children and families with the aim to promote healthy life-long eating habits whilst maintaining social and psychological well-being. The intake of energy and essential nutrients should aim to maintain ideal body weight, promote health and growth, optimize glycaemic control, whilst minimizing the risk of chronic complications. Recent advances include the use of intensive insulin regimes together with accurate and consistent carbohydrate counting, as well as low glycaemic index food choices which have been shown improve glycaemic control. The use of continuous glucose monitoring has provided us with an insight into the effect of the composition of meals on glucose levels and the opportunity to tailor insulin therapy and dietary advice on an individual basis. This article reviews the aims of dietary management and the current understanding of what diet is optimal for children and young people with diabetes.