My son is losing his childhood... to dementia
A BOY of four has forgotten how to say his first words – “mama” and “daddy” – after being struck down with dementia.
George Young is one of Britain’s youngest sufferers of the disease, which has already began to rob him of his childhood and will eventually stop him growing up.
George was a happy, healthy child who had just started to walk and feed himself when he began having seizures 18 months ago.
Doctors initially thought he had developed epilepsy, but further tests showed he was suffering from Batten disease – an extremely rare form of childhood dementia.
His condition rapidly deteriorated. George has now forgotten dozens of words and lost the ability to walk.
There is currently no treatment for George’s strain of the condition.
He will eventually have to be fed through a tube in his tummy and is unlikely to live past his late teens.
Fighting back tears, Claire, 35, said: “He was just at the age where he had mastered all of those skills that we spent time teaching him – his walking and his eating and his language. To watch those all unravel for him was really difficult.
“It’s horrible to see him being robbed of his childhood.”
While dementia typically affects people aged over 65, Batten disease is an incurable inherited disorder of the nervous system that typically begins in childhood.
It leaves children suffering cognitive impairment, seizures, and progressive loss of sight and motor skills.
Early symptoms of the terminal illness appear between the ages of five and 10 years and parents have to endure the agony of helplessly watching their child’s rapid decline.
Claire, a solicitor who is separated from George’s father, does not know how much time she has left with her son. Yesterday she told the Daily Express how she is determined to cherish every moment with him.
She has devised a “bucket and spade list” to give him as many experiences as possible before his condition deteriorates further.
Claire, of Kenilworth, Warwickshire, said: “I wasn’t aware of childhood dementia. You especially don’t expect it to happen to one of your own.
“Apart from the symptoms you can already see, I can’t believe what’s going to happen to my little boy.”
Claire is backing the Dementia Strikes Children Too campaign. Visit childhooddementia.co.uk to find out more.