User:PWSMom

My Story

My baby was born spring 2004 and what I was most struck by is that my child's PWS experience is not reflected by the medical or new parent literature currently available. Partially, this is because my child appears to be mildly impacted. And partially this is because my child belongs to the new generation of PWS children with multiple early interventions.

Both my husband and I are medical scientists by training. In addition to the extreme emotional pain of having a child with a disability, we are engaged in the problem of PWS. We have no choice about our boy's genetics and therefore we choose to throw everything we have into modifying his environment. We choose to believe completely in the redundancy of the human genome and the incredible plasticity of the nervous system, especially in the early years.

I am grateful to my new brother-in-law who has overwhelmed me with his kindess and care about my son and about PWS. He suggested this Wiki as a means of gethering together all of the things that we parents have learned about our children. He spent many hours over Thanksgiving 2004 setting this up for us.

Basics about my son:

• Two older sisters: 6 1/2 and 3 years older
• PWS by deletion
• Half Chinese and half white
• Moved a great deal in utero
• Born term at 7 pounds, 11 ounces
• Apgar of 9 and 9
• Placed in intensive care at 24 hours for low tone and inability to feed
• Put on ng tube
• In intensive care for 2 1/2 weeks
• Diagnosed at 2 1/2 weeks
• CoQ10 (Cyto-Med) at 4 weeks
• Weekly physical therapy at 8 weeks
• Weekly occupational therapy at 8 weeks
• Monthly speech therapy at 8 weeks
• EFA's at 8 weeks
• HGH at 12 weeks
• Breast milk for first 4 months and then Enfamil formula
• Vojta therapy at 5 months
• Started solids at 6 months

My son's milestone:

• Moved head back and forth at 4 weeks
• ng tube removed at 6 weeks
• Social smile at 2 months
• At 4 months 25% for weight and 75% for height
• Laughed at 4 months
• At 4 months he had met his age-appropriate gross and fine motor milestones (low points for style, however)
• At 4 1/2 months could eat all food from regular store bought nipple
• At 5 months feet in mouth
• At 5 months can roll over and over to get objects
• At 5 months discriminates between rougher and gentler sisters when he sees them coming
• At 5 1/2 months he was seem by a physiatrist and determined to no longer be hypotonic
• At 6 months can prop sit indefinitely - until he reaches for something
• At 6 months infrequent crying, lots of cooing, poor babbling
• At 6 months moves frequently
• At 6 months can creep and pivot while on belly (but moves in wrong direction)
• At 6 months drops objects and belly laughs when we pick them up
• At 6 months sleeps abou 12 hours at night and takes 2-3 45 minute naps during the day
• At 6 months 10% for weight and 50% for length
• At 6 months difficulty eating

You can find me on the PWS 0-5 Yahoo list. I am not using my name here because I am unclear how much this will take off and I am not sure if I want my Google identity to be about PWS. When I am not caring for my family, I am a medical writer.

I enter this heading here in the hopes that another family will enter their story

To do so, click log in in the upper right and then start typing. You cannot do it incorrectly. Please share your story here and elsewhere so that we can all learn from you.