The onset of type 1 diabetes before the first year of age is a rarecondition and is probably due to an interaction between genetic andenvironmental factors. Infantile onset diabetes needs to be distinguishedfrom "Neonatal diabetes" which can be either permanent or transient. Theaim of the current study is to describe the clinical characteristics andlaboratory findings and the different triggering factors in patients whodeveloped permanent diabetes mellitus during the first two years of theirlife. There was a slight female predominance with male to female ratio1:1.2, their average age of onset was 13.65 months. The highest percent(92%) were presenting with polyurea / polydepsia, (66%) were presentingwith weight loss,( 50%) were presenting with DKA. Thirty eight (76%) ofstudied patients had cow milk before the age of 1 year, 28(56%) wereexclusively breast fed till the age of 6 months and 29(58%) of the patientshave +ve family history of diabetes. In conclusion, we focused on animportant age group of diabetic patients with early onset of the diseaseand the importance of avoiding exposure to the different predisposingfactors which may precipitate early onset of diabetes.