[Variable expression of non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in childhood]

Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) in pediatric age remains not well defined as a nosological entity. The so-called Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY), for example, recognizes three different etiologies. Three cases are presented as an example of different possibilities of onset and evolution in pediatric age: a 12.5 year old girl presents a positive familial history of NIDDM, a slow onset of the disease and goes on well with administration of an oral hypoglycemic drug; a 12.5 year old girl too, with a positive familial history of NIDDM, with acute onset of the disease, needed an oral hypoglycemic drug when she was overweight. Having lost the ponderal excess, she goes on very well with the diet alone; a 13 year old girl without any familial history of NIDDM, who presented a dramatic onset in occasion of an intercurrent illness; she required insulin therapy only during a steroidal therapy period, administered for ovaric polycystosis. The authors argue over the age of onset, the familial history and the therapeutic approach to NIDDM in pediatric age.