I am new to the internet and Lactnet. I have had a few trisomy children. From what I understand most of them live a short time and mine certianly passed on very soon after birth. I had a trisomy 21 child live for 2 months in which we pumped the mother and supplied all the breast milk we could.This child was severely malformed.And a Trisomy 18 child. The child didn't grow well and the specialist said this is to be expected no matter what we fed this infant. Most commonly the trisomy child is SGA. Trisomy is a condition in which there is one extra chromosome presant in each cell in addition to the normal (diploid) chromosome set. A number of chromosome disorders are due to trisomy, including down's syndrome and klinefetler's syndrome. There is a 2:1 to 4:1 ratio of females over males. Males tend to die in the immediate newborn period. Most trisomy children, from what I understand have many anomalies involving every organ system. Anomalies of the cardiovascular system have the greast frequency with prevalence approaching 100% Nearly 75% will have major gastrointestinal anomalies and 70% will have urogenital systems malformations. For the trisomy 18 and 21 child many of these conditions may be surgically corrected, there is no justification for undertaking surgery on any of them once the diagnosis is made, since the out look for these babies is so hopeless from the beginning. If born alive I have found the lit states the course of the infant effected by these two types of trisomy is one of steady progression toward death, hastened by any one of the numerous associated congenital anomalies. within the first month 30% die, 50% die by the end of 2 months and 70 % die by the end of 3 months and by the first year 90% of these childern have passed on. all survivors are severely mentally handicaped and unable to talk or walk. I don't have any information on the trisomy 8 but I will pull it from the medical library on Tuesday...They are closed on Monday. Both of my cases were ng fed mothers milk as much as possible. My role was one of great support and just listening. The neonatologist did not allow any close contact until after death??????? The no concact rule was very hard on the family. I went rounds and rounds with the neonatologist. It was a true shame. I hope my experiance has helped and good luck...further information to follow as I learn about trisomy 8. Ruth lawrence has a small portion on trisomies and down's third edition page 349-350...