A child with Rett Syndrome (RS)

I was reading this article found in “awake magazine” and I was so touch by the story of a little girl (Hillary) who was born just like any other normal child but eventually her mother noticed something’s wrong with her. When it was time for to start crawling, she didn’t seem interested. In her first year she had learned only a few words and she had no effort to walk or pull herself up to a standing position. Hillary’s mother was so worried and she went to talk to her daughter’s doctor but she was told that her daughter is lazy. Later on Hillary started developing unusual hand movement and accordingly it was like a rhythmic movement (back & forth to her mouth), breathing abnormalities such hyperventilating and breath-holding until her lips would turn purple. The mother was so desperate to know what’s going on with her daughter. If I’m in her shoe I would surely feel the same. To make the long story short the mystery was solved when Hillary turned 5 years old a friend of her mother read an article in local newspaper about a girl with little known genetic disorder called Rett Syndrome. She took Hillary to a neurologist and it was confirmed that Hillary is suffering from RS. Really a sad story!

Here are the symptoms;

• Decreased head growth from 4 months
• Loss of the ability to use hands functionally
• Loss of the ability to speak
• Repetitive hand movements
• Unusual breathing patterns
• Seizures grind their teeth
• Tremble and shake when upset or scared