“Can juvenile diabetes be cured?”

At the moment juvenile type 1 diabetes cannot be cured. However, modern treatments involve increased self blood glucose monitoring (SBGM) and automatic continuous glucose measurements (CGMS) as well as updated insulin preparations (faster rapid acting insulins to cover immediate meal and snack excursions as well as flatter, basal insulins to better cover between meals and overnight values) and newer, smaller and the beginnings of automatic closed loops pumps that communicate with the CGMS. More details of meal and snack planning also have become available as well as more attention to exercise/activity, stress and psychosocial issues and key importance of family and peer support for the pwd: person with diabetes. The most important issue for children and parents remains working closely with a diabetes care team of specialists, optimizing food, activity, education, support and monitoring/insulin delivery to get the closest A1c values to normal without producing increased hypoglycemia and also avoiding hyperglycemia. Time in range needs to be taught and optimized while minimizing time below range and time above range. Focusing on age-appropriate education for the PWd and also the family is critically important and a training book like Hanas' Type 1 Diabetes Manual is extremely helpful as are summer and weekend camp support programs. There are also some newer medications that may be able to address the root cause of type 1 diabetes which is an autoimmune attack, now better (but not completely understood) against the pancreatic islets where insulin is produced. Early clinical trials have been able to postpone the need for insulin but not yet completely and we do not know how long these effects really last. But medical science is focusing on this with good information becoming more and more available. If you are interested in such an approach then you should review the possibilities with your diabetes specialty team.

At this time there is no cure for type 1 diabetes in children. Some people undergo islet cell transplant. But that has a risk of suppressing the immune system with immunosuppressant medications. And this will not be good for children. Many reasearch are currently underway to try to cure diabetes. There may be a cure for diabetes especially with the advent of genetic engineering and stem cell technology. I am not sure pharmaceutical companies will be excited since they make billions from diabetes medications and guagets.
At this time type 1 diabetes in children can only be controlled with in insulin and of course regular exercise Will help but not cure it. In rare cases I have see some atypical diabetes they come and go. But for the majority until pharmaceutical companies are ready to provide a cure insulin is the way to go.
Thanks

At this time there is no true "cure" although a tremendous amount of effort is being put into finding better ways to manage it from day to day.

Unfortunately as today juvenile diabetes is a lifelong condition. He must receive insulin every day.