Children with diabetes at higher risk for developing eating disorders, report says

NEW YORK Children with diabetes face an increased risk of having eating disorders, and researchers at Harvard University and Emory University want to know if how they are taught to control their eating habits has something to do with it.

Over the next three years, the researchers will study 90 children between the ages of 10 and 17 who have received new diabetes diagnoses or who have recently started using an insulin pump, analyzing their eating and weight, their attitudes about eating and weight, their treatment, psychological adjustment and blood sugar patterns.

The children and their parents will be given computer questionnaires to track their status.

The researchers have said the findings could influence the way diabetes is treated in children and adolescents.