In a previous study, the investigators showed that tight blood glucose control with insulin during intensive care reduced morbidity and mortality in adult intensive care patients. Whether this intervention also improves prognosis of pediatric intensive care patients remains unknown. The current prospective, randomized, controlled study will asses the impact of intensive insulin therapy on outcome of patients in a pediatric intensive care unit. On admission patients will be randomly assigned to either strict normalization of blood glucose according age adjusted values or the conventional approach, in which insulin infusion is initiated only when blood glucose exceeds 215 mg/dl to maintain blood glucose levels between 180-200 mg/dl.