Thinking and wondering?

[PaigesMom]

Does anyone have any other individuals in their family, other than their child (blood relative, husband or wife side, no matter how distant) that also has a diagnosis of Down syndrome (the T21 Variety - non-disjunction).

[ValerieC]

We are not aware of any?

Is there a reason for your question or are you just taking a random poll?

Valerie C

[Pat]

Yes, my husbands 1st cousins granddaughter.
I just bought a digital camera and we will be seeing her this weekend in IL. Hope to get some shots that I can post. I'll have to ask CC how to do it

[CC]

As far as I know Chris is the first in our family

CC ~

[Emilysmom]

Ok....I hope I can get this right.....My husband's father's first cousin was a girl who had Ds and I think she was close to his age. She remained at home, didn't go to school, but helped in her parents grocery store. She passed away at about age 58. I've seen pictures of her from when she was 2 or 3 and she was adorable.

Susan

[momofrussell]

Kevin's cousin's had a daughter with DS. They are MIL's brother's son and wife, Tim and Debbie. She died when she was a baby though Debbie had her a few years before I had Russell. After I had Russell she sent me a card and a pic of her daughter. It was very touching. She wrote a beautiful poem about her and I have only looked at it 2 times because I cry too much when I read it.

It's funny you ask about this. I was just thinking of Debbie and her daughter. I thought about reading the poem again and sharing it. I shared it once years ago.

I know my winded answer was MORE then you were looking for... sorry LOL

A.

[MB]

I had a cousin who died shortly after birth due to a heart condition. I've always wondered if she had Ds. She was born in the mid 1950s.

MB

[meghans_mom]

No relatives that we know of. My mom did have a miscariage (sp?) and susposedly the baby (a boy) had some sort of condition but didn't seem to be compatible w/ life...so most likely not DS, and since it was like 1965, they didn't check. Also, my grandma had 6 m/c's - all boys (my mom was the only girl and only child who lived!)...so there was probably something genetic there but again, not DS. So, now that I gave you my whole life history....and didn't answer the question, LOL....no, no DS that we know of.

[PaigesMom]

WOW, I can not believe there are so many responses so fast.

I've wanted to ask this question for awhile now, but for some reason just never had the guts to post it.

The reason - My mothers brother has Down syndrome (my uncle). Supposidly he is T21 (Paige is T21) but since it was in the 40's when he was born, they never really tested him - my grandmother had him when she was in her mid 50's. He is 58 years old now and lives in a group home.

**I** know that T21 is not genetic (like translocation), however, I am always running into skeptical people, especially in my own family, who just cant believe that there were two 'random' cases of DS in the same bloodline - to much of a coincidence - and that there has to be more to T21 than researchers/scientists know about.

So, I thought I'd ask and see just how many people had this 'random' T21 occurence happen more than once in their family.

Just doing my own research, LOL, although, the answers are quite intriguing and I'm actually surprised.

Debbie

[Valerie]

We're not aware of any in our families. I do work with a woman who has a brother and 2 first cousins with DS. I'm thinking her family falls in that small percentage that is genetic.

[Ashlea]

There are no other DS people in our family. We do have a history of miscarriages... my Aunt had one at 5 months, Grandmother had 1 plus a still birth and so far I have had 1 (Trisomy 4). It definately makes me nervous about trying again.....

[Claire]

My husband's nephew and his wife had a little girl with Down syndrome only 20 mths after Adam was born. I actually stayed at their place for 3 months in Sudbury (4 hour drive form my home) until Adam was ready to come home after his birth. The first thing they said to me when they found out their daughter also had Down syndrome was " God gave us Adam to prepare for Holly" By the way it was their first child and both we're in their ealy twenties. They had 3 more children all girls since ;D and none with Down syndrome.

[kristin]

In the early 70's, my husband's aunt and uncle had a little boy born with Down syndrome; AV Canal heart condition and Hirschbrung's Disease; he sadly passed away at 4 months of age, without ever having left the hospital. Ironically, however, my husband is adopted, so this aunt and uncle are not "blood" relatives. Needless to say, the birth of Cole was very difficult for them, as their experience was by no means a positive one, and I don't think they ever fully dealt with it. They went on to have two more non-DS boys who are in their 30's now.

[angela2]

I have a second cousin with ds. He is about 43 years old now. My father and his mother are first cousins. He does very well, he lived at home for many years but now lives in a group home because his parents are in their 80's.
My aunt (my mother's sister) had a baby who died a few hours after birth of a heart condition. I asked her about it recently, and they never mentioned ds to her, but of course I thought of it! This was in the 1940's, so who knows?

[marisa99]

No one on my side of the family has DS. Mark is adopted and has no medical history, so I can't really said about his side. Also, I had a late miscarriage before Kathryn was born. The dr. said it was probably due to something being genetically wrong but no diffinite dx was given, especially since it was my 1st pregnancy.