Kushagra (Kush) was born on 21 Feb 2013. He is our fourth child. He has two elder brothers and an elder sister. Mom’s pregnancy was uneventful other than diet controlled gestational diabetes. Kush was two weeks overdue. The labour was induced as the midwives noticed he was appearing distressed. He was born after a brief labour of 20 minutes. He passed all his new born tests without a hiccup. His both APGAR scores were 9 (best). He gave a loud shriek in his first few minutes but then settled down. He was 4 kg and 240 gms at birth. A good healthy looking baby and was discharged the third day and everything was normal. The only thing we really noticed in his first few days was that he didn’t want to open his eyes that much and at that time we thought that to be due to his rushed birth.He slept a lot in first few days and about three weeks old he started crying inconsolably at night from 9 PM to 3 AM without a break. We took him to the GP and were told that this was colic and is normal.He saw the GP at least multiple times in his first 6 months. He also had his regular early childhood checks. We raised his shrieking but the practitioner’s response was always that this would go away at around 16 – 18 weeks old. He would begin with crying then screaming and arching his back and go on for a few hours, arch backwards, stiffen out and in the end his body would become limp and then he would sleep. We tried every possible way to calm him down but it was getting bad to worse. Kush nursed well but hated the feeding bottle. We had tried every bottle in the market but nothing worked. He couldn’t have a bottle and breathe at the same time. He was very floppy and made very little eye contact. He used to hold his breath whenever we took him out even if it was slightly windy. In hindsight and after speaking to a lot of parents, we now know that this were typical behaviours of a child with FoxG1 condition.At around 6 months old we were concerned about him not meeting his milestones. He was not rolling over or sitting, poor head control, no weight bearing and no eye contact. If at all he would gaze right through us like we weren’t there. He was overall floppy. So the GP referred us to the Paediatrician. At about 7 months old we had his first appointment with Paediatrician on 26 Sep 2013 and that day was the worst day for us – having our world shattered with the reality that there was something very severely wrong with our little baby. While the paediatrician was examining him, he said that his head circumference was small, he had poor head control, was not tracking visually and the list goes on. He said there might be something severely wrong with him but he doesn’t know. We were then referred to Neurology at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Physio therapy in hospital, Genetics clinic, Ophthalmologist, and booked for a Brain MRI. The referral papers mentioned Microcephaly and suspected Angelman Syndrome.The search results that came up with google scared the hell out of us. We knew in our hearts that while he is delayed, he will definitely catch up one day. At the first appointment with Neurologist he pointed out his low muscle tone, head lag and dystonia / coreaformic movements. This began our 18 months search for what was wrong with our little boy Kush. We went through countless tests that never turned up any answer. We knew that something is off with Kush but the tests kept coming normal.At 11 months old on 19 Feb 2014 Kush had his first Grand mal seizure which lasted about 4 minutes. This was frightening. He wasn’t breathing for over 2 minutes and his lips turned blue. We thought he was dying and called the Ambulance. He was rushed to the ER. At hospital they did EEG and found epileptic discharges and some abnormal brain activity. Kush was admitted and was put on anti-seizure meds.Then after about 2 months in April 2014 he started getting infantile spasms so he was then put on steroids (Redepred). The plan was to keep him on these for 2 weeks and then wean him off after introducing other Anti epileptics. He ended up being on steroids for over 6 months. He went through episodes of steroid rage which if you have experienced this is absolutely not fun. I (Vivek) can remember holding him in my hands and he was kicking and screaming with the power of a horse literally for 4 hours straight. I was worried that he was exerting so much that he would have a cardiac failure. I alerted the doctors multiple times but was advised there was no danger and it was the steroids kicking in.The human body is a truly amazing machine in its abilities. Also they say what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. We were in and out of the hospital, on multiple occasions staying for weeks at a time. For a Period Hospital was Kush’s second home. Based on our initial consultation with the Geneticist, before leaving for India, she thought that Kush had an obvious genetic disorder but upon Kush’s physical exam and all the previous tests, the results came back negative. So this time around our Neurologist wanted to do some specific tests which included 75 other genes known to cause developmental delay/ intellectual disability. We nearly waited 4 and half months for the results. However our Neurologist called and told us that they had found the cause of Kushagra’ s overall global developmental delay and wanted to get us in the clinic to discuss the results.
Finally in March 2015, after 18 months of testing and investigation, we were told that Kush has a mutation on his FoxG1 gene. Kushagra has a unique mutation ( c.946 del ) which has not been reported previously in any database or literature. It is considered a single – point mutation that occurred spontaneously given that neither we (parents) nor his siblings exhibit the characteristics. Finally we had an answer for his condition.
Well that being said – For the past 6 months of his life Kush has been the best we have seen him. He is a very happy little boy. He eats orally, he is spoon fed pureed foods and is maintaining age appropriate weight. He has recently started rolling from side to side and can hold his head up most of the time. He also loves to take turns and babbles. He doesn’t sit, walk or talk just yet. He laughs and smiles a lot he has a very happy disposition. His laugh is contagious and is the sweetest sound in the world.
Earlier this year, after coming across the IFF Facebook parents group, we connected with Jane another mother of a FoxG1 boy from Nowra NSW Australia who 11 years old. He is in mainstream school and in his age appropriate classes. We shared our story with her and the conversation was the biggest relief for us having for the first time, being able to connect with someone who truly understood and had exactly lived through what we were going through. The conversation was almost like reviewing her life to how she felt when her son was two. The conversation was almost like reviewing her life to how she felt when her son was two.
Being a single gene disorder, we are very hopeful that a cure will be found shortly. We would welcome you to join our journey to find a cure for Kush. We feel we are truly lucky to be able to get the diagnosis so quickly and to be able to connect to other families and understanding our predicament more wholly.
https://youtu.be/0P86kUPBO2U is a link to what research has come up with for a mouse with Rett Syndrome which is very similar to FoxG1. We invite everyone to please join us in our journey to overcome FoxG1 and help other children like Kush, please visitwww.FoxG1.com or contact Vivek at +61 433 806 830.
What keeps us going is the determination to help others like Kush and work towards finding a cure for FoxG1. What IFF Kush can walk and talk and toboggan and surf and run.
TOGETHER WE CAN FIND A CURE .
Kushagra (Kush) was born on 21 Feb 2013. He is our fourth child. He has two elder brothers and an elder sister. Mom’s pregnancy was uneventful other than diet controlled gestational diabetes. Kush was two weeks overdue. The labour was induced as the midwives noticed he was appearing distressed. He was born after a brief labour of 20 minutes. He passed all his new born tests without a hiccup. His both APGAR scores were 9 (best). He gave a loud shriek in his first few minutes but then settled down. He was 4 kg and 240 gms at birth. A good healthy looking baby and was discharged the third day and everything was normal. The only thing we really noticed in his first few days was that he didn’t want to open his eyes that much and at that time we thought that to be due to his rushed birth.He slept a lot in first few days and about three weeks old he started crying inconsolably at night from 9 PM to 3 AM without a break. We took him to the GP and were told that this was colic and is normal.He saw the GP at least multiple times in his first 6 months. He also had his regular early childhood checks. We raised his shrieking but the practitioner’s response was always that this would go away at around 16 – 18 weeks old. He would begin with crying then screaming and arching his back and go on for a few hours, arch backwards, stiffen out and in the end his body would become limp and then he would sleep. We tried every possible way to calm him down but it was getting bad to worse. Kush nursed well but hated the feeding bottle. We had tried every bottle in the market but nothing worked. He couldn’t have a bottle and breathe at the same time. He was very floppy and made very little eye contact. He used to hold his breath whenever we took him out even if it was slightly windy. In hindsight and after speaking to a lot of parents, we now know that this were typical behaviours of a child with FoxG1 condition.At around 6 months old we were concerned about him not meeting his milestones. He was not rolling over or sitting, poor head control, no weight bearing and no eye contact. If at all he would gaze right through us like we weren’t there. He was overall floppy. So the GP referred us to the Paediatrician. At about 7 months old we had his first appointment with Paediatrician on 26 Sep 2013 and that day was the worst day for us – having our world shattered with the reality that there was something very severely wrong with our little baby. While the paediatrician was examining him, he said that his head circumference was small, he had poor head control, was not tracking visually and the list goes on. He said there might be something severely wrong with him but he doesn’t know. We were then referred to Neurology at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Physio therapy in hospital, Genetics clinic, Ophthalmologist, and booked for a Brain MRI. The referral papers mentioned Microcephaly and suspected Angelman Syndrome.The search results that came up with google scared the hell out of us. We knew in our hearts that while he is delayed, he will definitely catch up one day. At the first appointment with Neurologist he pointed out his low muscle tone, head lag and dystonia / coreaformic movements. This began our 18 months search for what was wrong with our little boy Kush. We went through countless tests that never turned up any answer. We knew that something is off with Kush but the tests kept coming normal.At 11 months old on 19 Feb 2014 Kush had his first Grand mal seizure which lasted about 4 minutes. This was frightening. He wasn’t breathing for over 2 minutes and his lips turned blue. We thought he was dying and called the Ambulance. He was rushed to the ER. At hospital they did EEG and found epileptic discharges and some abnormal brain activity. Kush was admitted and was put on anti-seizure meds.Then after about 2 months in April 2014 he started getting infantile spasms so he was then put on steroids (Redepred). The plan was to keep him on these for 2 weeks and then wean him off after introducing other Anti epileptics. He ended up being on steroids for over 6 months. He went through episodes of steroid rage which if you have experienced this is absolutely not fun. I (Vivek) can remember holding him in my hands and he was kicking and screaming with the power of a horse literally for 4 hours straight. I was worried that he was exerting so much that he would have a cardiac failure. I alerted the doctors multiple times but was advised there was no danger and it was the steroids kicking in.The human body is a truly amazing machine in its abilities. Also they say what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. We were in and out of the hospital, on multiple occasions staying for weeks at a time. For a Period Hospital was Kush’s second home. Based on our initial consultation with the Geneticist, before leaving for India, she thought that Kush had an obvious genetic disorder but upon Kush’s physical exam and all the previous tests, the results came back negative. So this time around our Neurologist wanted to do some specific tests which included 75 other genes known to cause developmental delay/ intellectual disability. We nearly waited 4 and half months for the results. However our Neurologist called and told us that they had found the cause of Kushagra’ s overall global developmental delay and wanted to get us in the clinic to discuss the results.
Finally in March 2015, after 18 months of testing and investigation, we were told that Kush has a mutation on his FoxG1 gene. Kushagra has a unique mutation ( c.946 del ) which has not been reported previously in any database or literature. It is considered a single – point mutation that occurred spontaneously given that neither we (parents) nor his siblings exhibit the characteristics. Finally we had an answer for his condition.
Well that being said – For the past 6 months of his life Kush has been the best we have seen him. He is a very happy little boy. He eats orally, he is spoon fed pureed foods and is maintaining age appropriate weight. He has recently started rolling from side to side and can hold his head up most of the time. He also loves to take turns and babbles. He doesn’t sit, walk or talk just yet. He laughs and smiles a lot he has a very happy disposition. His laugh is contagious and is the sweetest sound in the world.
Earlier this year, after coming across the IFF Facebook parents group, we connected with Jane another mother of a FoxG1 boy from Nowra NSW Australia who 11 years old. He is in mainstream school and in his age appropriate classes. We shared our story with her and the conversation was the biggest relief for us having for the first time, being able to connect with someone who truly understood and had exactly lived through what we were going through. The conversation was almost like reviewing her life to how she felt when her son was two. The conversation was almost like reviewing her life to how she felt when her son was two.
Being a single gene disorder, we are very hopeful that a cure will be found shortly. We would welcome you to join our journey to find a cure for Kush. We feel we are truly lucky to be able to get the diagnosis so quickly and to be able to connect to other families and understanding our predicament more wholly.
https://youtu.be/0P86kUPBO2U is a link to what research has come up with for a mouse with Rett Syndrome which is very similar to FoxG1. We invite everyone to please join us in our journey to overcome FoxG1 and help other children like Kush, please visitwww.FoxG1.com or contact Vivek at +61 433 806 830.
What keeps us going is the determination to help others like Kush and work towards finding a cure for FoxG1. What IFF Kush can walk and talk and toboggan and surf and run.
TOGETHER WE CAN FIND A CURE .