Who Participates in DAISY?

Group 1 (General Population Cohort): Nearly all of the babies born at St Joseph's Hospital in Denver between the years of 1994 - 2004 were screened for genetic markers for type 1 Diabetes if their parents were willing. Of these babies, those with moderate or high-risk genetic markers were asked to participate in DAISY.

Group 2 (Sibling-Offspring Cohort): Children with parents or siblings who have type 1 diabetes are also at an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes. For this reason any child with a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes is also eligible to participate in the study. Children must be under 4 years old to enroll.

• We have screened about 35,000 babies at St Joseph's hospital for genetic markers

• Approximately 1500 children are actively enrolled in follow-up. They range in age from 3 months to 16 years

• As of February 2007, 61 children followed by DAISY have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. An additional 15 children who were screened by DAISY, but not followed over time, have also developed type 1 diabetes.

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What's Involved?

• If your child is less than one year old at the time of enrollment the study begins with telephone interviews. These interviews take place when your baby is 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 months old. They usually take about 10-15 minutes.

• For these children we also see them in the clinic when they are 9, 15, and 24 months old and then just once a year after that until they are 15 years old.

• If your child is over one year old when you enroll, we see the child in the clinic at the time of enrollment and then just once a year after that until they are 15 years old.

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What Happens at the Clinic Visit?

• Height and weight measurements

• Viral samples (throat culture, rectal culture, and saliva sample)

• Blood Tests - The blood tests that we do are specific tests that tell us if the body is making any antibodies against the insulin and the insulin-making cells. This tells us if the autoimmune process is beginning to occur and lets us know that the child may be developing diabetes. We do use a special numbing cream, EMLA, so that blood draws are painless!

• Update interview - A questionaire about your child's last year. We ask about their diet, illnesses, stress, vitamins they may be taking, school and other interactions with their peers.

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What If My Child is Positive for Antibodies?

• If your child is positive for any of the blood tests, we will let you know that as soon as possible. Usually we will retest the child as soon as possible (a lot of times the antibodies go away) but if your child is persistently positive we will monitor your child closely. Instead of once a year, we see children positive for antibodies every 3-6 months. We will also teach you how to check blood sugars at home, make sure you know all the symptoms of diabetes and we will get you in touch with a pediatrician at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes.

• Because DAISY monitors so closely, the majority of the DAISY subjects who have gone on to develop diabetes have been diagnosed very early in disease development. Early diagnosis means less complications, and most children have not had to be hospitalized.

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