WHY DOWN SYNDROME IS NOT A DISEASE

Today is the World Down Syndrome Day and why in Babies and more We are making a special about it. To normalize and help if possible in the social integration of people with this syndrome, it is worth remembering that it is not a disease. In fact, the same Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) decided two years ago delete the word "disease" of its definition.

The most recent definition of "Down syndrome"

As we explained in 2015, following the request of a mother in Change, the definition was modified on the RAE website, becoming the current one:

Congenital anomaly caused by the total or partial triplication of chromosome 21, which is characterized by different degrees of intellectual disability and a variable set of somatic alterations, among which the cutaneous fold between the nose and the eyelid stands out.

In Babies and more # Authentic: the campaign that shows people with Down Syndrome as they are

The word disease it was replaced by anomaly, because trisomy 21 is not a disease as such: there is no cure or specific treatment, and although there are associated diseases, they do not always occur, nor do they appear in the same way.

But there are treatments that can help

That's right, but we don't mean specific medical treatments for children with Down syndrome, but interventions (medical treatments are for diseases that, as we just said, may or may not appear). To say that Down syndrome is not a disease does not mean that the sufferer should be treated as if he did not have an intellectual disability, but simply assume that they are so, and help them to within their limitations they can reach their full potential, as is done with other syndromes or disorders.

They are children who require early medical attention because associated with trisomy there may be more or less important diseases that must be diagnosed and treated, and they are children who can benefit greatly from development interventions, to start as soon as possible: speech therapies, physical therapies, occupational therapies, etc.

"Good thing they are very happy people"

It is common that in our desire not to suffer for them, or to wish that they do not suffer, we get to the idea that people with Down syndrome are happy, probably more than us, and that they are affectionate and smiling. Well, it's not always like that. In fact, It doesn't have to be that way, and they have no obligation to be that way..

In Babies and more they did not know that their baby came with Down syndrome, and the video of her birth thrills tens of thousands of people

I want to say with this that, of course, the parents and the environment of a child with Down syndrome have to have the mission of making him happy, but this goal is not far from that of all parents of all children: we all have what to try May our children be happy.

The problem is that children with Down syndrome have an important handicap. They live in a society that is not very inclusive with minorities, and that is why even now, in 2019, they continue fighting for it. In consecuense, there are people with trisomy 21 who fail to be happy, Nonetheless. And so we must look at them and treat them, as people like us, that we have good days, regular days, and bad days. With their feelings, hopes, dreams and illusions; With your problems and your worries.

Only then, when we consider them people capable of feeling the same as us, we will start thinking about them as the term requires: people who have a genetic abnormality, but who are not sick. Different, how different we are all really from each other.