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Show Family Weekly December 19,1965 The -- Christ as Git That Saved My .Sons week before Christmas three years ago, my hus-J- t. band and l read a Family Weekly article, "A New Life for Karen" and it changed our lives. about A I don't remember too much about that fateful Dec. 16 in our old Nebraska farmhouse. But I do vividly recall the sobs that tore through my husband as he broke down and cried, not once but several times. For two years he had insisted (along with the doctors we had consulted) that Peter, our fourth "child, was perfectly normal. Now, having read the article, he could no longer ignore the possibility that Peter might be, as I feared, mentally retarded. Like "Karen (the little girl in the Family Weekly article), "bur child. But, like Peter was a beautiful, blond, perfectly normal-lookin- g Karen, his development was too slow. He could not sit up until he was nine months old. He was two years old before he took his first step. Now, at three, he still did not speak a single word. Slowly Peter was withdrawing from the bubbling world created around him by his sister and brothers. More and more of his time was spent In his rocking chair just rocking. When we took the rocker away, he found a straight-backe- d chair, climbed in, and began trying ' .. to rock again. I couldn't take him anywhere. Any unexpected noise would throw him into a frenzy. The drum beat of a parade, a loud television prowould send him screaming gram, or the sound of a simple push-to- y . from my side. v Yet I didn't cry when I realized that Peter might have been born with phenylketonuria, the disorder which had caused similar symptoms in Karen. Indeed, the slim chance that my son might also have PKU (as the ailment is more commonly known) sent hope racknow we might be able to do something ing through me because ' for our little boy. The article pointed out that investigators were pretty certain that . 4 Family Weekly, December 19, 1995 the brain damage caused by PKU could be checked in a young victim by putting the child on a special diet. Indeed,' Karen went on the diet when she was three years old. By the time she was ready for school, she had shot from an IQ of 45 to a IQ of 85! PKU victim cannot in a Karen's from liver learned As I story, the one of the more than 20 amino acids properly digest phenylalanine, that make up protein foods. Although this is an inherited ailment, the patient is actually born perfectly normal. Brain damage begins only after the undigested phenylalanine from the food eaten after birth starts to accumulate in the body, especially in the nervous system. PKU has been known to medical researchers for 30 years, and its potential cure had been a reality for more than a decade. But news traveled slowly to the small Nebraska farm community where we near-norm- al lived. My doctor had heard of phenylketonuria, but he had no idea of how to test for this supposedly rare illness. At the time, it was estimated that only one out of every 20,000 persons in the United States suffered from PKU. But Iknewfrom reading Karen's story that the affliction was more common among Scandinavians than other ethnic groups and my husband's mother was Danish ! The article also pointed out that PKU can cause a lightening of the victim's hair. With a catch in my heart, I realized that Peter was blonder than his brothers and sister were ! The pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fit together too closely for me to stop now. I tested Peter myself. Armed with a copy of Family Weekly and a vial of ferric chloride; I followed the simple test procedure described in the article. I splashed a few drops of ferric chloride on a wet diaper removed frorn Peter only a few seconds before. As the chemical touched the urine-stainportion of the diaper, it instantly turned green. Our son did have PKU. This positive diagnosis was just about the best Christmas present our family had ever received Now Peter could have whatever help was available. . ed -- |