- The FDA has approved Afrezza, an inhaled insulin, for children and adolescents.
- Taisie Seigrist is a 15-year-old who took part in the clinical trial for Afrezza.
- Seigrist said the needle-free option has changed her life.
When Taisie Seigrist was 10 years old, she began experiencing persistent thirst and the urge to urinate frequently.
“She would come home from school and drink five glasses of water instantly,” her mom, Jennifer, told Healthline.
Concerned that Taisie might be ill, Jennifer turned to her sister-in-law, who lives with type 2 diabetes, for help. Jennifer asked her if she could borrow her glucose meter to test Taisie’s blood sugar. The device revealed that Taisie’s blood sugar was 684 mg/dL, which is dangerously high.
“We called our doctor, and he said go straight to the children’s hospital, so we did, and we were there for about a week,” said Jennifer.
“It was scary for both of us to hear,” said Jennifer.
While Taisie left the hospital with a continuous glucose monitor that helped manage her condition, she also relied on mealtime injected insulin shots, as often as seven times per day.
“A pump wasn’t really a good option for us because of our lifestyles,” said Jennifer.
For the first two years after Taisie’s diagnosis, her mom administered mealtime shots for her. Then Taisie began doing them herself.
Because Taisie didn’t have a lot of body fat, she had to keep returning to the same injection sites.
“Taking shots really hurt, especially doing it in the same place,” Taisie told Healthline.
The shots also affected her quality of life. Injected rapid-acting insulin takes about 15 minutes to start working and stays in the body for 2 to 3 hours, which made it difficult for Taisie to administer during school and at track and cross-country. If her blood sugar needed correcting right before a race, she’d have to sit out.
“It kept her from being able to participate at certain times,” said Jennifer.
Managing her condition took an emotional toll, too. In elementary school, her classmates accused her of taking insulin shots for attention, which made an already difficult condition feel even more isolating.
Michael Glazier, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Bluebird Kids Health, said mealtime insulin is challenging for anyone living with diabetes, but especially for children and adolescents.
Varying schedules, feelings of denial and rebellion, as well as the inconvenience, embarrassment, and stigma associated with injection administration in front of peers, can add to the difficulty and make adherence more challenging, he said.
“It is unfortunately obviously easier to ‘skip’ a mealtime dose than to give one, and this inevitably leads to less time their blood sugars are in the desired range and more complications as they age,” Glazier told Healthline.
In 2024, during a routine appointment, Taisie’s endocrinologist asked whether she would be interested in participating in a clinical trial of Afrezza, an inhaled mealtime insulin taken before eating that mimics the body’s natural insulin response at mealtime.
“We jumped at the chance,” Jennifer said.
While Taisie didn’t fully understand the science of the trial, she was intrigued by a new treatment option.
“Once I heard that it was inhalable insulin, I got really excited because I didn’t have to take shots,” she said.
She responded well to the medication.
Jennifer said it gives her metabolic flexibility.
“With injections, she would take a shot 15 minutes before she would start eating and then it would stay in her system for two to three hours, so we couldn’t do a correction for two to three hours, whereas with the inhaled insulin, as soon as you take it, it’s in your system and out of your system in an hour so we start doing corrections if we need to a lot sooner which keeps her A1C down and her number down and it’s really amazing and it’s so easy.”
For Taisie, the difference is something she can feel.
“It’s made my blood [sugar] more level than it was when I was taking shots,” she said.
She also feels social and emotional benefits. Before, the thought of eating cake at a birthday party meant mentally calculating another shot and deciding whether the food was worth it.
“She doesn’t have to be like, ‘No, I don’t want that because I don’t want to do another shot,’” Jennifer said.
Today, Taisie only takes one shot of long-acting insulin at night.
On May 29, 2026, Afrezza became FDA-approved for children ages 6 and older living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, about 12 years after the medication was approved for adults.
Jennifer and Taisie hope the news will help others get access to the medication, as they currently pay out of pocket for it at a discounted rate for participating in the trial.
For families weighing treatment options for children with type 1 diabetes, Jennifer said talk to your child’s doctor.
“It’s a really good option for people whose kids have diabetes and want something different and don’t want a bunch of bruises from taking multiple shots a day or don’t want another piece of technology like a pump on a kid’s arm or their hip,” she said. “It’s really convenient. It’s really easy.”
Glazier agrees. However, he said there is still a place for recombinant technology and insulin pumps, which allow for better blood sugar regulation and management.
“Inhaled insulin will not replace the need for these products and delivery systems with regard to blood sugar control, but it will add to them and be particularly helpful for patients with strong aversions to needles and who have difficulties with meal-time blood sugar management,” he said.
Source link : https://www.healthline.com/health-news/afrezza-inhaled-insulin-diabetes-changed-life-teen
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Publish date : 2026-06-14 02:00:00
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