Our daughter Claire was diagnosed with Cri du Chat Syndrome shortly after her birth in November 2010. This diagnosis was in some ways a welcome one, after we were told of anomalies in her brain development during our pregnancy, and we prepared for ‘the worst’.
Claire is amazing. She is beautiful and is thriving. Sure, she is not meeting ‘normal’ milestones, but Claire is making progress every day and we look forward to watching her achieve her full potential, all in her own time.
We are very happy to talk about Claire and her condition. We want to spread awareness about Cri du Chat Syndrome, which is relatively unknown, with an incidence of somewhere between 1:37000 and 1:50000. The most distinctive characteristic, and the one for which the syndrome was originally named in 1963 by geneticist Jerome Lejeune, is the distinctive high-pitched, monotone, cat-like cry. “Cri du Chat” is French for “cat’s cry”. You can read about my thoughts on this here.
We have established this site to celebrate our gorgeous girl. It will also provide a stepping stone to other sites such as the Cri du Chat Support Group of Australia’s website.
Hannah & Matt Gutke xox
Photos were kindly donated by Sonia Vine Photography
Claire Matilda 
You must be logged in to post a comment.