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Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Loud noises, unexpected movements or simply touching can be enough to trigger seizures in newborn babies with "startle disease".
Their chest and throat muscles freeze, their limbs go rigid and sometimes their breathing stops.
Comforting or cuddling these babies often makes it worse.
But new research has discovered a major cause of the disorder and a genetic test for startle disease, or hyperekplexia, is now a possibility.
For the 30 or 40 babies affected by the illness in the UK each year, this could transform their lives.
Scarlett Fifield, from Grimsby, was just three hours old when she was first startled.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18911272
Their chest and throat muscles freeze, their limbs go rigid and sometimes their breathing stops.
Comforting or cuddling these babies often makes it worse.
But new research has discovered a major cause of the disorder and a genetic test for startle disease, or hyperekplexia, is now a possibility.
For the 30 or 40 babies affected by the illness in the UK each year, this could transform their lives.
Scarlett Fifield, from Grimsby, was just three hours old when she was first startled.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18911272