Child Carrier of Cystic Fibrosis?
Question by skyler: child carrier of cystic fibrosis?
My cousin just found out that her daughter is a carrier for cystic fibrosis what does this mean? Her aunt just passed away from this and they had her tested she is 9 so what does this mean? my cousin is a nervouse reck can anyone help me to uderstand what this all means so I can maybe help my cousin and be supportive
Selected answer:
Answer by reneaumommy
it means her daughter doesn’t have it but when she becomes of child bearing age if the potential father is also a carrier her child could have cyctic fibrosis
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Tagged with: Carrier • child • cystic • fibrosis
Filed under: Cystic Fibrosis
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A child gets a gene from each parent that determines whether the child will have the condition. The child will only have the condition if both parents give the child the gene–if either parent gives the child a healthy gene, the child will be fine. Your cousin’s daughter has one healthy gene and one defect gene, so your cousin’s daughter will be fine.
This is important because your cousin’s daughter will pass that gene on to 50% of her kids. This means that when she is getting serious enough about someone to consider marriage, that her potential husband should probably get himself checked to see if he is a carrier as well. If he is not a carrier, there are no worries–there is a 50% chance each of her kids will be carriers and all will be healthy. If he is a carrier, then there is a 25% chance that a couple that are both carriers will have a child with CF, and a 50% chance that the child will be a healthy carrier (and a 25% chance that they will not have the problem at all).
That’s it–it’s a little problem, it’s not nearly as scary as you thought.
As a carrier, the daughter would have one gene for CF and able to pass it on at the 1:2:1 ratio if the father of their children was also a carrier. Of four, one child would inherit both genes required and develop the disease, two would be carriers and one would be neither carrier nor have CF. Daughter could live a normal fearless life if prior to marriage she saw a genetic counselor whom would advise her of options to have potential mate screened for CF and if he was free of the gene (s), some of her children’s risk would be for carrier only. She could also choose not to bear children at all. Marriage to a carrier would not be advisable at all because the risk of having children with the lethal pair would be too great and heartbreaking as well unless the couple agreed to prevent childbirth in advance and one of them was sterilized.