Laura
Hi Wendy, I have a niece with Turner's. I don't know a lot about it because information seems to be limited somewhat. Her mother is a LPN and was in denial for quite awhile. My neice is 2 years older than my daughter, and it wasn't until my daughter was considerably taller than her cousin that she really noticed. When her mother took her for her annual wellness screen, to a doctor who hadn't seen my niece since birth, he pointed it out to her. My sister-in-law tried to deny it but, he told her that my niece had all the classic symptoms at birth and it was only more obvious to him 10 yrs later. Her mom has always just told her that she's special because lots and lots of people are "average" but only certain people get to be "special". She was also told not to worry about not being able to have babies, because adoption was a very noble thing to do. She seems to have only mild mental retardation in that, she doesn't seem to have quite the full range of human emotion. For example, sadness. When she was little, her dad, my brother, accidentally backed over her kitten. He thought she would be devastated because she loved it so much. She just asked why it wouldn't play with her. When he told her about the accident she just said OK and went on playing with other things. Then 2 years ago, her dad was killed in a tragic accident and she seemed to just not understand what all the fuss was about. Her little brother who is 7 yrs younger cried and shared favorite memories of their dad. I have never seen her shed a tear in any situation. My niece has no interest in the things that most 14 yr old girls seem to like. Although she also seems to not be affected by thoughts of "Why am I different?" Perhaps you could help me more by sharing what info you have on Turner's than I can at knowing what to say to a little girl with Turner's.