Cri du chat syndrome

Cri du chat syndrome (Cat's cry syndrome) is a medical condition that affects about 1 in 50,000 infants. Infants with this illness have a different type of cry when they are babies; it sounds like a cat meowing or sometimes like a cat screaming. As the child gets older, this doesn't happen so much. 
Cri du chat syndrome was first written about by Jerôme Lejeune, a French pediatrician in 1963, so it is sometimes called Lejeune syndrome. It is caused by a bad copying of a gene, which leaves part of a chromosome called 5P-, missing. The condition affects more girls than boys; about every fifth case is a boy, the other four are girls. Children who have it have problems with the voice box. They usually have other disabilities as well; some have a learning disability or physical disability, while others have both of these.
The following symptoms are common:
Some of these problems mean that those who have this condition will almost certainly find life difficult. Only about half of children who have Cri du chat syndrome can eat with a spoon by the age of 3.5 years. 
As this is a genetic disorder, no treatment exists. Individual symptoms can be treated separately.