I was responding to a post in another group. 1 mom said that it has been proven that early exposure to cow's milk,formula feeding, and giving juice to a baby can lead to if not cause diabetes. im paraphrasing this so forgive me. if this is true then i did cause my dd diabetes.great another guilt trip added to what im already feeling. and here i was told by her doctors that her pancreas no longer functions, and that by giving her juice or anything with sugar didnt cause it.
The woman is an idiot. It's an autoimmune disease. Did she specify Type 1? A lot of people lump the Type 1 and Type 2 together.
You did NOT cause your childs diabetes. My son's endo said it is a combination of genetics that come from both mother and father to predispose (but not guarantee) diabetes, autoimmunity - the body thinks the islet cells that produce insulin are foreign invaders, and unknown environmental factors. My son is T1DM and was in a study that is trying to determine the environmental factors for T1DM. They are running this study because NO ONE knows exactly what causes a child to be diabetic.
my understanding is that it is true that autoimmune disorders (including allergies) are more common in the population of people that were not breastfed and/or introduced to foods other than breastmilk early in infancy. the immunoglobins in breastmilk may play a role in helping the immune system develop fully and properly. the key here is the word "population".
you can always find trends when you look at large numbers of people. and, you can always find exceptions to those trends when you look at individuals. my T1 girl is one of those; she was exclusively breastfed, breastfed a LONG TIME, and i introduced solids late and was very careful about the foods she did have (trying to avoid allergy). for reasons we do not understand.....she now has T1.
the important thing is: you made the best choices for your child, because you - as the mother - knew what was best at the time. we all did. i think we all battle guilt over this or that, but ultimately it is not one bit productive. it doesn't help us or our kiddos. one thing i've learned through this is that we truly are not as in control as we think we are (or wish we were) - and there's NO WAY we had control over those T cells that decided to attack the Beta cells!
Never heard that one! There is a lot of speculation about causes but nothing is fact!
I work with statistics for a living, and know just how easy it is to manipulate the numbers. You give me a set of data points, and I can prove two opposing theories with the same exact info.
My point is that if you look hard enough, you can find a "cause" for anything. Never trust the numbers with out asking who is behind them, and what they have to gain from them. Scientists are searching for the real reason one child will get T1 and a sibling won't; so far it appears to be a genetic predisposition, but they don't really know what triggers it. Until they have a real answer, you have no reason to blame yourself for her disease, and even when/if they do, you still don't. As long as you didn't KNOWINGLY do anything to give her T1, it's not your fault. And since no sane parent would knowingly cause thier child's chronic disease, you have no reason to feel guilty.
I say this every day to try and convince myself my ds's T1 is not my fault - somedays it even works ;)
Hi Jamie; I see a lot of good info has been given you; just to add to that I breast fed my dd for 8 and a half months. She developed Type 1 JD at age 8 years old. They dont know what caused her to be a diabetic. I was a diabetic while carring her; she is 22 and I still am not a diabetic. I felt guilty for a while but have realized that it is just something that happened.
Not to worry!
Celiacs?
- Jamie1972
on May. 5, 2010 at 5:26 PM