My son was born in May, 2005. He was diagnosed that he has 17q21.31 deletion just before his third birthday. Everyone thinks he is the cutest thing, and he loves flattering to people.

He was born 4 weeks prematurely, with emergency C-section due to his heart drop. He was only 4lbs and 8oz. His umbilical cord was short and wrapped around his neck and that caused his heart rate dropped. He had jaundice, and was treated for 4days.

Breast-feeding was unsuccessful due to his weak suction. We thought that was because he was premature. He also did not suck well from the bottle and always took forever to finish the bottle. We started his solid food when he was 7 months, but he quit eating any solid, or any puree when he was 9 months after hospitalized twice for asthma. His weight gain has suffered and his GI doctor suggested to place a feeding tube when he was 11 months. We said NO THANKS, and tried anything and everything to gain his weight, but by his second birthday, he weighed only 19 lbs. He was still sitting on a car seat in rear facing position. And we said it’s time to have the tube.

It was at 9 months check up that the developmental delay flag went up. His neck wasn’t quite steady enough (it should be steady by 3 months), he wasn’t sitting up (should be 6 months). He started physical therapy right away, and soon he got occupational therapy as well. He started to walk two weeks before his second birthday, but still no speech. He started speech therapy at age two, and increased therapy frequency at age 2.5 and he started making a lot of variety of sounds.

He started pre-school at age 3 in special education setting. He received PT, OT, and ST from school. At age 3.5, he can run, jump, kick, climb up a ladder, almost throw a ball. His fine motor and motor planning are still his weak point. His expressive vocabulary is about 150 words including sign language.

His other medical history includes: Asthma since 8 months, Epilepsy since 17 months. A partial agenesis corpus callosum was found at 15 months. Surgery for undescended testicle at 20 months. Allergic to cats and weed.

Above all, he is a very happy boy. He loves to clap his hands, and he always does it at right moment. He loves to blow kisses and gives hugs and makes everybody feel special.

Submitted by: His mom