Video: Cord blood used in diabetes treatment

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Diabetes doesn't stop Barrett Ross.

"I'm just like a regular kid. I just get a couple more shots and a couple more pricks than other kids,” he said.

He pricks his finger up to eight times a day and monitors everything he eats.

When Barrett was first diagnosed, his parents enrolled him in a clinical trial involving cord blood.

"I contacted them immediately through e-mail and told them that Barrett was diagnosed within the last 24 hours and that we had saved cord blood," says mom Christine.

At the University of Florida, 20 children were given a one-time infusion of their own cord blood. Researchers say stem cells in the blood may slow the immune attack of diabetes so the pancreas destroys fewer "good" cells that produce insulin. Some of the kids who had the infusion required less insulin and had better blood sugar control.

"It is very exciting. I take care of children with diabetes all the time. I know what it is that they go through," said Desmond Schatz, MD, Pediatric Endocrinologist, The University of Florida.

Barrett used to take 30 units of insulin a day.  Now he needs less than 10, and after two years of diabetes, his body is still producing some insulin.

"Diabetes can't stop you from anything,” he said.

All parents have the option of banking a newborn's cord blood, but it can cost up to $2,000 up front and about $100 a year to store it.

Researchers hope cord blood infusions could one day become part of a standard treatment plan for kids with type one diabetes. A decade ago, less than 1 percent of Americans banked cord blood. Today that figure has grown to about 4 percent.