What illness or disease or form of mental retardation possiblly, I am
a grandmother and two of my grandchildren, brother and sister have
turned in feet and they hold their mouths open with their tongues out
most of the time, they have done this since infancy and are now 1 & 2
yrs.old, the youngest had an unexplained seizure when she was about
2-4 months old, they treated her at Vanderbilt Childrens hospital with
phenobarbetol and she stopped having them and is better, the 2 year
old does not talk except a couple of words here and there, and does
not feed himself well, do you have any answers? Also the two year old
also has a lazy eye that turns in my daughter has been referred to a
pediactric opthomologist for that. But I,m still concerned about the
mouth and tongue thing. Please help. Worried Grammy

Dear jagfl-ga;

Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. Note
that our disclaimer does not allow us to provide medical advice in
this forum. Your question then seems to solicit an opinion based on
published research and this is what I am providing you with.

Common Habits of some mentally retarded children and adults include
such things as bruxism (grinding the teeth), mouth breathing, and
tongue thrusting. This is often due to a malformed palate, and/or
abnormally small mouth and lips that are also commonly occurring birth
defects especially in those born with Down syndrome (aka Trisomy 21).
Children born with this condition are usually easily identified by
their physical characteristics alone, which typically tend to appear
evident in about 80% of Down syndrome cases:

CHARACTERISTICS OF DOWN SYNDROME
http://www.downsyn.com/whatphys.html

While inward turning feet are not a typical characteristic of mental
(in fact the opposite is a more common occurrence) subluxation
(dislocation or deformity) of the hips is. This can lead to an
improper posture and gait, which may, in some instances, be visually
interpreted as ?pigeon toe?. However, given the fact that these
siblings both have protruding tongues, and one or both of them have
nystagmus or amblyopia (lazy eye), abnormal posture issues, and
significant trouble achieving mental and motor milestones commonly
expected of children their age, all the signs you mentioned do seem to
suggest a problem. Along that same line, seizures are also commonly
reported in children with mental retardation and give rise to
suspicion. I highly recommend you have the children screened by a
specialist for possible chromosomal anomalies (like Down syndrome or
other forms of retardation that are detectible in a chromosome
screening such as defects attributed to lead poisoning). Clearly,
something ?is? wrong; what it is exactly and whether or not it is
mental retardation is certainly not something we can tell you for
certain in this forum and will likely require someone even more
specialized than the average pediatrician to identify. I definitely
recommend you consult one.

I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



INFORMATION SOURCES

DOWN SYNDROME
http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/downs_syndrome.html




SEARCH STRATEGY


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SEARCH TERMS USED:

RETARDED

RETARDATION

CHARACTERISTICS

DOWN SYNDROME

PROTRUDING TONGUE

AMBLYOPIA 

LAZY EYE