Was my child born with chILD?

We don’t understand all the causes of the different chILD disorders. Some children are affected at birth while others are not affected until later in childhood. There are some children that appear to be healthy until they catch some kind of other illness (i.e. colds, RSV and/or bronchitis) which starts the process of chILD. For these children, early treatment and intervention is really important to slow or halt the process of the disease. Certain forms of chILD (such as surfactant problems) are inherited through genes. We can test for a few genetic causes of chILD, but most do not have a genetic test yet. Without more research, it will be difficult to determine the role genetics may play in other forms of chILD.