The following news story that I want to comment on is a difficult one to discuss. While it is not about a baby per se – it affects all of us who have babies. It affects those of us especially who have babies with special needs or disabled infants. In this case, parents of a young girl who is severely disabled mentally are electing to use medical treatments to prevent their child from growing up physically.
They want to keep her child sized the rest of her life because she has only the mental ability of a babe of three months of age. The little girl cannot talk, she cannot walk and she cannot even keep her own head up. She is fed through a tube. Her existence is that of being bed ridden and they want to keep her as comfortable as possible – the only way they believe that they can do that is by keeping her size relatively small.
Pillow Angel
According to the news story, her parents call her a pillow angel because she stays where they place her on the pillow. Following a consult with physicians and specialists, the parents began medical treatments when they noticed the first signs of puberty affecting their child. The treatments included a hysterectomy and high doses of estrogen.
These procedures are designed to keep her at about 4 foot, 5 inches in height. Her weight will remain about 75 pounds. This should also keep her from suffering too much in the way of bedsores and also help to remain easier to carry and move. This is a process that is known as growth attenuation. The information about these procedures was published in a medical journal and there is a growing debate about the ‘Frankenstein’ procedures being considered for other disabled children.
Complicated Story
I think the story is far more complicated than just saying it’s the work of monsters to limit their child’s growth. Instead, they are doing their best to improve the quality of their daughter’s life by preventing her from having to struggle with menstrual cramps or the potential discomfort of bedsores and other pains associated with a growing body and more.
How do you feel about this? It’s a challenge to have a disabled child and in this case, I think the parents are doing what they think is genuinely best if their daughter is unlikely to ever grow beyond the mental development she has at this time. What do you think?
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