Just as the number of prescriptions for treating or preventing type 2 diabetes have doubled, so have the number of children hospitalized for this completely preventable disease, according to researchers from the New York University School of Medicine.

Scientists analyzed trends in hospitalization rates, health costs and the length of hospital stays for type 1 and type 2 diabetes problems among children based on hospital discharge records reviewed from 1997, 2000 and 2003.

The rate of type 1 diabetes 15 percent among children over the six-year period was certainly notable and worrisome, but not nearly as much as the number of hospitalizations for type 2 diabetes that soared by a health-harming 200 percent. Unfortunately, boys were 1.3 times more likely than girls to be hospitalized for type 2 diabetes. Also, children in the 9-12 age range experienced the highest rates of hospitalizations, and Native American black and Hispanic kids were at the greatest risk of increased hospital stays.

The great shame about these alarming numbers: Even cornerstones of conventional medicine like the New England Journal of Medicine believe type 2 diabetes can be treated successfully without useless drugs by retooling your child's diet according to his unique nutritional type, getting more sleep and getting him moving on an exercise plan.