Insulin resistance is an emerging condition among children and adolescents, associated with an increased risk for metabolic and cardiovascular complications, therefore it requires consideration early in life. However, there is still confusion on how to define insulin resistance, how to measure it, which are its risk factors and whether there are effective preventive and treatment strategies for it. In order to clarify these points, the main International Societies for Paediatric Endocrinology organised a consensus conference on insulin resistance in children. The original article that reports the results of this consensus has been published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinological and Metabolism.