Galactosemia Definition, Symptoms, Life Expectancy, Treatment, & Diet

Treatment of galactosemia

Diet therapy

The most curative treatment is ingesting food that is free from galactose and lactose. So, your doctor’s baby will tell you about the diet, what is safe to feed him, and what to avoid?

So, let’s see the food that you will avoid:

• Mother’s milk
• Cow’s milk
• Yogurt
• Cheese
• Butter
• Ice cream
• Tomato
• Mushroom
• banana
• apple

Also, you should avoid any food containing the following elements:

• Whey
• Whey solid
• Cruds
• Casein

While safe food like lactose-free milk formula, and, after 4-6 months, you can feed him solid food like eggs, meat, and any protein food.

Calcium supplement

Because the infant can’t consume human milk, he suffers from hypocalcemia. So, your child should take calcium supplements and vitamin D to compensate for this calcium deficiency.

Management of learning difficulties

1. Your doctor refers your child to the speech therapist to help him to overcome any speech difficulties.
2. At school age, your child should have an educational plan to improve his learning skills and overcome any difficulties at education.

• Neurological follow-up: to assess the brain development and intervene rapidly if the baby has tremors or ataxia
• Physical therapy improves muscle strength and helps your child if he has motor difficulties.
• Treatment of premature ovarian insufficiency: hormone replacement, in vitro fertilization, and calcium supplement
• Treatment of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism: hormone therapy that contains estrogen and androgen

Treatment of complications

• Liver transplantation: It becomes the option when the liver failure reaches the end stage.
• Kidney transplantation: if the child suffers from the damage of both kidneys
• Antibiotics to control infection before sepsis occurs
• Intravenous fluids to avoid the drop of blood pressure
• Cataract surgery: the surgeon removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with a clear lens.

Behavioral therapy

Helps the child in his emotions and the family how to deal with their child.

Prognosis of galactosemia

Early treatment can help the child to live a healthy life and prevents any developmental retardation. If the doctor doesn’t diagnose and treat the baby, he will suffer from liver failure, vision problems, and developmental delay.