Genetic study?

Question

has any one ever had a genetic study done on a infant my grandson is 4 months old wears hearing aids and doctor wants us to take him to pitts for genetic study thanks

Answer 1

People of all ages who suffer from the same condition can get put into the same genetic study. :)

Answer 2

I'm sure they have ways of conducting the same kind of genetic studies on babies that they do on adults.  It should be okay.  I can't imagine an infant that age having to have hearing aids.  My 3-year-old grandson has been in glasses for about a year now and it almost breaks my heart, but he has accepted them and doesn't even seem to notice them any more.

Good luck.

Answer 3

well the idea is that something your grandson inherited predisposed him to hearing problems, by including him in a study, researchers may be able to better understand how this gene works and to see if there's any hope in the future for those who develop this problem or to prevent it from happening to others. they would never put a child in danger, so there's nothing to fear. also think about how much good it could help with. if you wait till he's older, that's that much more time for researchers to put that to good use

Answer 4

It is standard of care to offer a genetics evaluation for all infants with hearing loss.  About half of hearing loss at birth is caused by genetic factors, and the other half is caused by environmental factors (for example certain infections contracted by the mother during pregnancy).  Some genetic forms of hearing loss may cause other features such as different color eyes or other health problems like heart or vision problems, but most genetic forms of hearing loss do not cause any other symptoms other than the hearing loss.  A genetics doctor could do a physical exam on your grandson and take his medical history to make sure they don't see any features that can go along with genetic hearing loss and they could also talk to you about doing blood tests for some of the more common genetic causes of hearing loss.  Some of the possible benefits of doing this type of evaluation would be to know what the cause of the hearing loss is, know what the chance is for it to happen again in the family, know whether there are any other health problems your doctor may want to keep an eye out for in your grandson, and to have an idea of whether the hearing loss might be stable or might progress over time.