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Dear Mary,
I was delighted to read your
letter in the recent issue of "Even Exchange". It was
refreshing to
hear from someone who's experience with KS has been other than a
textbook case.
I too have a son diagnosed
in-utero as 47xxy. He will be 4 years old soon and thus far, has
exhibited NONE of the signs frequently reported in the
newsletter.
He said his first word at a
little over 6 months, and has been talking in complete sentences
since he was 2 years old. He is going to be tall, but I am 5'8
and his father is 6'2..we
would be surprised if he weren't. (he has a 12 year old sister
that stands 5'7"). He has
bitten his fingernails since I weaned him, and still does,
although he now prefers to have
his daddy find the clippers and snip off any rough edges. (I have
a close friend who is
tall [6'5"], bites his fingernails to this day, has two kids
and is a successful attorney.)
We haven't had our son's IQ tested, but I can assure you he is
VERY bright.
His coordination seems a little slow to me, but I'm assured by
other mothers that he
doesn't seem slow to them. The fact of the matter is, if we
hadn't been told that
something was amiss, we wouldn't have a clue.
We haven't had the diagnosis
confirmed post-partum, but were told that the chances of a
mistake were slim to none. We have been observing him with a
watchful eye and even
the tiniest indication of a problem is scrutinized as though
under a microscope. Even so,
we have yet to discover a real problem.
When we got the news we were
devastated, but chose to keep the information to ourselves.
We told no one except my mother. His paternal grandmother doesn't
even know to this
day, and there is a reason for that.
We live in a tiny community and
everybody knows everybody else. These kids go to school
throughout their youth together. It's very easy for kids to
become stereotyped and even
branded. Because no one seems to have a definitive answer as to
what to expect, we
made every effort to expect nothing less than any normal child,
and wanted the people
around him to do likewise. Without the knowledge that we have,
they do just that,
and no one has ever noticed anything unusual about him.
Judging from all that we have
read or heard, we feel very blessed and fortunate that things
have turned out like they have. If or when we decide that
intervention is necessary, we
will be the first to inform his teacher/family, but until then,
not even his sister is aware
that there was ever a concern. One day he will probably require
hormone
supplementation, and we will tell him at that
time, but until then, we are going to let him enjoy his
childhood....and so are we!
Thank you so much for sharing
your story with us. Don't ever hesitate to shout good news
from the roof-tops. I hope to hear more from you as your son
grows.