Anyone Have Experience With Turner Syndrome?
 

I had a family come tour with me at my daycare recently. The baby was 4 months old but very small. Maybe weighed about 8-9 lbs at the most. I was taken back by how tiny she was. The baby was crying thru the whole 30 minute tour and sounded like a newborn. The parents were taking turns holding her but she never seemed to be happy even with constant movement.

I got some red flags during the tour... like the mom said that she needed to put her in daycare for some sanity time... how she constantly has to move around while holding her... how she has feeding issues where she never gets full, so they had to cut her feedings back which makes her even more fussy. There were a lot of red flags.

Then at the end of the tour, the mom tells me that she was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome while in utero. I guess they had an ultrasound early on and found a growth on the back of her neck which triggered the doctors to do a special amnio type test to check for this Turner Syndrome. She did indeed have it. I guess she had a 10% chance of surviving thru the pregnancy but she made it.

I asked the mom what it was and she just said it was that she was missing a female chromosome so she wont ever have puberty or mensturate and would have to do invitro as a woman in order to get pregnant. She will have to take special growth hormones and whatnot later in life. She looked healthy to me - although she had low ears and really chubby feet and kind of a thick neck. And very small.

What made me really nervous was when she said that babies with this syndrome sometimes have heart problems so they keep having to get her heart checked. So far the dr's think its ok but are always monitoring her.

I asked the mom if she is paranoid with her condition - like during naps and things like that. She said that she is always scared and watches her constantly... never lets her sleep alone...holds her thru naps and constantly checks on her because they are paranoid her heart will give out.

Have any of you had a daycare baby with this condition? My husband said I should pass on this one and I think hes right. Even without knowing her condition, I already saw lots of red flags with how difficult it would be caring for her along with my other little ones. She just never seemed happy and the parents looked so tired and were so eager to get her into a daycare. I feel bad saying no to them, but I think for my own sanity and for liabilty reasons, maybe its the best thing I should do...

If you decide not to take the baby be very careful what you tell the parents. If you decide to say it wouldn't be a good fit, either leave it there or just say because you have all older kids you prefer not to have an infant, etc.

I was a program manager in a day hab for disabled adults and one of the consumers had this. She also had other delays (can't recall if Turner's is one of those syndromes with a higher rate of other disabilities/delays?) which was why she was with us. She was incredibly sweet and fun. I really enjoyed having her as she watched all the popular tv shows and would give me the run down each morning. :lol: Obviously not the same as a child though:)

Yes i would pass but I would give the reasons mentioned above- but remeber to be careful in advertising...

special needs completely aside, if I had a baby cry through an entire interview and heard what mom said about needing to get away for sanity/constant holding & movement I would not even consider it.

I would state that you don't feel like you can adequately meet the needs of the child, while caring for the other children.

But I don't know how to emphasize that you don't mean her "special needs", but just the constant crying, etc.

In my state we are allowed to say that we can't take special needs child because we can't meet their special needs without hiring an additional safe member.

I mean, how does DCM think that you are going to be able to watch DCG sleep while caring for the other children. Maybe you could say you can't meet the child's needs while maintaining licensing standards ?

I had already mentally decided that I was going to pass even before they told me about the Turner Syndrome. The constant crying and the feeding issues had already gotten me before I knew that part.

I decided to pass on this one & tell the mom that I just dont have the space right now in my daycare for such a young infant. Which is not a lie really. I was going to have to rearrange my other kids to make it work, so it is what it is.

Aside from the syndrome... the constant crying and the never being satisfied with feedings was what would make me the craziest. Oh and the constant holding and rocking I just cant do with caring for the other children. Just wouldn't work. I feel so bad though that I cant help. Maybe they should go with someone who can just provider her 1:1 care.

Originally Posted by Unregistered:
I had already mentally decided that I was going to pass even before they told me about the Turner Syndrome. The constant crying and the feeding issues had already gotten me before I knew that part.

I decided to pass on this one & tell the mom that I just dont have the space right now in my daycare for such a young infant. Which is not a lie really. I was going to have to rearrange my other kids to make it work, so it is what it is.

Aside from the syndrome... the constant crying and the never being satisfied with feedings was what would make me the craziest. Oh and the constant holding and rocking I just cant do with caring for the other children. Just wouldn't work. I feel so bad though that I cant help. Maybe they should go with someone who can just provider her 1:1 care.

If the mom is just doing it for sanity, like she said - I would think their best choice is a nanny or a sitter for a few hours each day.

There was a great article I read about a SAHM, whose son had Autism, and she hired a nanny for her sanity and while she was embarrassed but it was so worth it to her. It was a beautiful article, I will try and find it.

The article is called "I am a stay at home mom with a nanny."

Also, just doing some research and it says that many babies with Turner's have milk intolerances. A lot of moms said tee child as extremely fussy, but changed when they switched to nutrimigen (sp) or soy. I'm sure mom has done reaserch, but that seems like it might help.

Thank you Blandino. I spoke with her today and she is going with a nanny after all. Her daughter actually had to be hospitalized yesterday for some heart related issues and I think that helped them to realize that would be a better option to have only 1 on 1 care. There are not many daycares to help them in the rural area we live so Im glad she decided on a nanny. Her older brother needs care too and also has some special needs so I think the nanny is the way to go.