To diet or not to diet in neonatal diabetes responding to sulfonylurea treatment.

Background Neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM) is defined as a monogenic form of diabetes that occurs in the first 6 months of life. As information on diet in NDM patients successfully treated with sulfonylurea is not yet available, we aimed to investigate the hypothesis that a carb-restricted diet is not needed in such cases. Case presentation In this case report, we present a successful implementation of a completely liberalized diet in a young patient with NDM, developmental delay and epilepsy (DEND syndrome), who was also switched to sulfonylurea treatment. The excellent metabolic control during follow-up despite completely ignoring any diet suggests that at least in some patients this approach might work. Conclusions If our proposed hypothesis is also confirmed by other reports, it might add significantly to the quality of life of these patients and broaden the knowledge in this medical field.