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Cameron with his mother on his first birthday |
On the 12th of
February 2008 I delivered my beautiful son Cameron
James at 39 weeks by elective caesarean section. He
is my second son and sixth child. After having
complication with high blood pressure in my previous
pregnancies, his birth ended a trouble free
pregnancy.
I was surprised at his size as he
was delivered as each of my children were heavier
than the last and the last two were over 8 pounds
and he was obviously smaller than that at 6 pound
15oz (3150g). His most striking feature to me was
his distinctive small receding chin and high pitched
cat-like cry – we referred to him as our little cat.
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Newborn Cameron |
He was taken to the special care
nursery while I went to recovery which is routine
for a caesarean birth and remained there overnight.
I was surprised he was on a respiratory monitor the
next morning as he was very mucousy and had
difficulty attaching and feeding strongly from the
breast. As the midwife checked him at his first
bath, she noticed single creases on his palms which
I now know as palmar or simian creases. The
pediatrician was called, he also commented on his
slightly smaller head size 33cm, micrognathia (small
receding chin), high pitched cry, diminished
reflexes, jaundice, pearl on his palate and although
he had a good suck reflex was not feeding well. He
ordered blood tests for chromosomal abnormalities on
day 2 and said we would see him in 6 weeks.
We went home on day 5 not knowing
what we were dealing with. Breast feeding continued
to be a problem and I expressed to complement every
feed. The child health nurse was a great help in
supporting me in my efforts to breastfeed but still
had no success. When he was 3 weeks old I asked my
GP to try and get the results for the blood tests as
by this stage I was sure something wasn’t right. He
called us in and broke the news to us, our baby had
Cri Du Chat Syndrome. He provided us with a print
out from the Cri Du Chat Support Group and made us
an appointment with the Genetic Counselor. It was
very difficult information to absorb especially by
now I was extremely sleep deprived and Cameron was
failing to thrive.
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 Cameron
10 months |
Cameron 11 months |
I continued to express and
started to receive help from a Speech Pathologist to
assist with breast feeding and he started
physiotherapy at around 3 months. At 5 months he was
hospitalised with bronchiolitis. A couple of weeks
later he had a modified barium swallow and
discovered he was at risk of aspirating while
feeding liquids so we started thickening his feeds
and my hope to exclusively feed him from the breast
ended. I continued to express until he was 13 months
old.
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 Cameron
bathing with his cousin |
His milestones seemed slow to develop but
were monumental achievements when they did. His first tooth
arrived at 6 months, he rolled at 7 months, he clapped at 12
months, began commando crawling and signing “finished” at 13
months (always at meal times as it is his least favourite
time of the day). He now sits independently and signs “more”
at 14 months. He is always very happy and placid. He calls
“mum mum” when he needs me and very rarely cries. He has a
tiny defect (hole) in his heart which is likely to close on
its own and has a turned eye (squint) which doesn’t require
treatment yet. Our only issue at the moment is his
reluctance to eat and only tolerates purees and finds
anything lumpier a challenge as he tends to choke or gag. He
is in perfect health and getting bigger by the day and we
are looking forward to what else life has to hold.
Sonia
Click
here to send an email to Sonia
TOP
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Cameron's first Christmas |
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 Cameron
at 13 months with his sister
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Cameron at his first birthday party
with his Dad |
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Cameron at 12 months with his cousin
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Cameron at 10 months with his Grandad |
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here to send an email to Sonia
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