Were your T1 children breast or bottle fed?

[fencesitter]

Interesting thread! William was breast/bottle fed and started on solids early, due to my desperation and his misery ... He was 9lbs 6oz at birth 😱 2 weeks overdue and seemed as big as a toddler to me! We have T1 in our family (both my mum's siblings). Also loads of different autoimmune disorders. About a year before his diagnosis he had a really horrible time with strep throat on a school trip to France, which progressed to scarlet fever!! I often wonder if that was the viral trigger that people talk about. My daughter (aged nearly 12, non diabetic) is taking part in a study called D-Gap, and will be giving some blood samples in February. She will have the chance to find out whether she has certain antibodies that might make her more susceptible to T1 (that's optional - it's not the aim of the study). The whole family gave DNA samples (just involved scraping inside of mouth), but Susanna is the only one doing the next stage. Obviously she hopes she won't have any of these antibodies, but even if she does it's by no means a given that she will go on to develop T1.

 

[fencesitter]

Me again
Thought you'd be interested in a bit more detail on that study. It is to find out more about certain antibodies that they think are present when the immune system sees insulin producing cells as 'foreign' (ie. the beta cell attacking thing that happens with T1). There are four different antibodies, and the researchers think they are more likely to be there in people who have T1. They also think they could be present in someone who doesn't have T1 yet, so they could be a sort of indicator.
By the way, still planning to go to the Oxford meeting and really looking forward to it.

 

[margie]

I was breast fed, one sibling was breast fed a couple of day but then Mum got an infection and was bottle fed, the others were bottle fed. I am the only one with diabetes.