Making A Child With Trisomy 18 Or Edwards Syndrome

Trisomy 18, or Edwards Syndrome, was discovered by a man named John Hilton Edwards in 1960, and is a condition that causes severe developmental delays because of an extra chromosome 18. Edwards was a professor of genetics at Birmingham and Oxford, he first saw Trisomy 18 in stillborn and abnormal babies. Trisomy 18 is the second most common trisomy after Trisomy 21. Trisomy 18 is not inherited, but completely random, it is caused by an error in cell division known as meiotic disjunction. The following essay will go over the signs, symptoms, mutation, and how to make the child with Trisomy 18’s everyday life as normal as possible. (trisomy 18 - Genetics Home Reference)

Trisomy 18 is caused by an error in cell division, known scientifically as

While there are only few ways to keep the child’s life normal, it all depends on the extent of the child’s symptoms. Feeding babies with Trisomy 18 is hard because they often have a hard time sucking, and they get tired easily, making it hard to breast or bottle feed. Because of this, the child may have to use a nasogastric tube, where the tube is inserted in through the nose, down past the throat and in to the stomach, or a gavage tube where the tube goes straight into the stomach through a small incision. Some parents tend to choose to have a less intrusive caring method for the child. They may want to keep the child in as normal an environment as possible. Some children also have a risk of having apnea. Apnea is when there is a pause in breathing for more than 20 seconds. The child’s apnea may be caused by having a “floppy” trachea, thus making it hard to breath, or it can also be Central Apnea, which is when the brain doesn’t signal the baby/child to breathe. Apnea can be treated/fixed with surgery, CPAP, nasal trumpet, or a tracheostomy. A tracheostomy is surgery that places a small hole in the neck to make breathing