Day to day care of Rett syndrome children.

Girls with Rett syndrome are profoundly handicapped and are incapable of an independent life. The basic living skills of feeding, toileting, dressing, mobilising and communication are examined and advice as to how these girls can best be helped in these areas is suggested. The changing impact of the diagnosis on parents, as the condition becomes more widely know, is mentioned, and the physicians' attention is directed to the parental and family stresses caused through the presence of a profoundly handicapped child in a family so that he or she may be careful in not adding to this stress by making further unrealistic demands, but rather be encouraged to act in a supportive and encouraging manner cognisant of the sometimes limited resources which are available to individual families.