Like Any Child: Raising a Child with Down Syndrome is a video guide that can help parents understand and prepare for the challenges of raising a child with Down Syndrome. A study that was recently published in The Journal of Pediatrics can parents make choices for their children with Down Syndrome.  This new study states that children with Down syndrome are more likely than their non-affected siblings to have higher levels of leptin, which is a hormone linked to obesity. The study can be read here in Advance for Physical Therapy Practitioners.

The research, conducted by teams from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, suggest that there is a connection between leptin and the known higher risk of obesity among children and adults affected by Down syndrome.

Thirty-six families from the Philadelphia area were enrolled in the study between 2001 and 2003; the families were required to have at least two children, one with Down syndrome and one without.

Between 2001 and 2003, 36 families were enrolled in the study. They were recruited through referring doctors and Down syndrome parent support groups in the greater Philadelphia area. The families needed to have at least two children, one with Down syndrome and one without.

The children were intentionally pre-pubertal and not obese. Sheela N. Magge, MD, MSCE, first author of the study, stated that “With puberty come hormonal changes in the body. We didn't want the data to be confounded by other factors. Also, the majority of kids, by design, were not obese because we were trying to get at risk factors for obesity before the obesity actually came about." Children who had other chronic conditions that could affect growth were excluded.

Through a blood sample, researchers measured obesity-related hormone levels in the participants, particularly the level of leptin. According to Dr. Magge, “Leptin is a hormone that is secreted by your fat cells. It acts in the hypothalamus in the brain to suppress appetite. We think it is involved in the regulation of body weight." Magge further explained that “obese children actually have high amounts of leptin, which is somewhat counterintuitive because leptin suppresses your appetite."

The study compared levels of leptin and other obesity-related hormones; Dr. Magge states that “by comparing” the children with Down syndrome “to a group of their unaffected siblings, you are controlling for many of the external factors that might arise if they weren’t in the same family.”

The study revealed that the children with Down syndrome had a higher body mass index, a higher percent of body fat, and a higher leptin level than their siblings.

"Even after we did a statistical comparison controlling for age, sex, race and ethnicity, the group with Down syndrome had higher levels of leptin, a higher BMI and a higher percent body fat," said Dr. Magge.