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...