Treatment

There is no cure for Tay-Sachs disease, but some treatments can help in managing symptoms. The goal of treatment is support and comfort. Supportive treatments include:

• Medication. To reduce your child's symptoms, a number of prescription medications are available, including anti-seizure medications.

• Respiratory care. Children who have Tay-Sachs disease are at high risk of lung infections that cause breathing problems and frequently accumulate mucus in their lungs.

  Your child may need the mucus using chest physiotherapy (CPT) to help remove mucus from the lungs.

• Feeding tubes. Your child may have trouble swallowing, or develop respiratory problems by inhaling food or liquid into the lungs while eating.

To prevent those problems, your doctor may recommend an assistive feeding device such as a gastrostomy tube, which is inserted through your child's nose and goes to your child's stomach. Or, a doctor trained in stomach surgery may surgically insert an esophagogastrostomy tube.

• Physical therapy. As the disease progresses, your child may benefit from physical therapy to help keep joints flexible and maintain as much ability to move (range of motion) as possible.

  Physical therapy can delay joint stiffness and reduce or delay the loss of function and pain that can result from shortened muscles.

Potential future treatments

Gene therapy or enzyme replacement therapy research may eventually lead to a cure or treatment to slow the progression of Tay-Sachs disease.