Hirschsprung's Disease: A Rare Disease of the Large Intestine

Hirschsprung's disease is disease of the large intestine. Not a lot of people know about this disease, because it's still considered a rare disease. I have learned quite a bit about this disease in the past 10 years. Two of my daughter's have this, as well as my husband.

Can this disease be hereditary? Yes. We were actually told after my oldest daughter was born with Hirschsprung's Disease, the chances of having a second child with this disease would be very slim. If we were to have another child the chances of another baby with this disease would be passed on to a boy, rather than a girl. I don't know where the doctors came up with this. I guess it is because doctors and medical teams are still studying this disease, and they still do not have all the answers. Well here is another answer, my son was not born with it, and our youngest daughter was also born with the disease. So, in my family, my husband passed it down to both of his daughters, one worse than the other and my son was lucky enough to have gotten my healthy intestines.

What exactly is Hirschsprung's Disease? The nerves or "gangloin" die off, or have died. The nerves are dead. The gangloin are the nerves that attach to the tiny hairs inside of the intestine. We need these nerves to work. What happens is when we have dead gangloin, is the intestine cannot push the waste inside our intestines through into our colon. That is why one of the first noticeable symptoms of the disease is constipation. A healthy intestine pushes all the waste into our colon, so we are able to pass the waste out of our bodies, not with a Hirschsprung's patient.

Most times Hirschsprung's Disease is something that will develop inside the womb. Chances are you are born with the disease. The first sign is when your newborn baby cannot pass their first bowel movement, also know as meconium. I did not know this during the birth of my oldest daughter, and was told by the hospital that she however did have meconium. Our surgeon later had to open my daughter's anus and basically remove the waste. That is why when our second daughter was born I knew immediately, she had Hirschsprung's Disease. Another symptom is the baby's belly can become swollen, gas, and projectile vomiting is another sign.

There are surgeries that can fix this problem. Some children have temporary stomas and colostomy bags, and pull-through's. My oldest daughter had 2 colostomy's and finally at age 2, she had long segment HD and had her pull through. My youngest daughter had a pull through at 2 weeks old. She of course didn't have it as bad as her older sister, but she also had a surgery that included no incisions on her belly. This surgery was done directly through her anus.

The disease will always be there, but with corrective surgeries and good dieting you or you child will recover from the disease.

Sources:

http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/articledetail.cfm?id=1598

http://www.hirschsprungs.info/phpbb3/index.php.