What is Harvey Price’s disability Prader-Willi Syndrome?
PRADER-WILLI syndrome is a rare genetic condition that affects one in 15,000 children in England.
Katie Price's eldest child Harvey, 18, was born with PWS and is now going into full-time care care so that he is able to be more independent life and learn new skills.
What is Prader-Willi syndrome?
PWS is a genetic condition that can impact muscle tone, sexual development and the function of the nervous system.
As well as this, those with Prader-Willi syndrome are more likely to have learning difficulties.
Often, it also sparks a constant desire to eat food and a permanent feeling of hunger which leads to child obesity.
However, the syndrome is very rare, with the NHS estimating that it affects "no more than one in every 15,000 children born in England".
What causes Prader-Willi syndrome?
Those with PWS have a genetic defect on chromosome number 15.
In around 70 per cent of cases, some of the DNA information that's inherited from the father is missing, which is referred to as "paternal deletion".
Other cases occur when a child has two copies from their mother and none from their father.
The condition is obtained purely by chance, but those who have one child with PWS have a less than 1 per cent chance of the next one being affected.
How is Prader-Willi syndrome diagnosed?
Genetic tests are used to diagnose PWS.
Medical professionals will often carry out this check if they identify someone who is displaying the symptoms of Prader-Willi syndrome.
The NHS offers more detailed criteria for diagnosis on their website.
What are the symptoms of Prader-Willi syndrome?
The Prader-Will Syndrome Association UK describes the medical characteristics of the condition as:
• Hypotonia: weak muscle tone, and floppiness at birth.
• Hypogonadism: immature development of sexual organs and other sexual characteristics.
• Obesity: caused by excessive appetite and overeating (hyperphagia), and a decreased calorific requirement owing to low energy expenditure levels, although obesity is not normally a feature of those whose food intake is strictly controlled.
• Central nervous system and endocrine gland dysfunction: causing varying degrees of learning disability, short stature, hyperphagia, somnolence (excessive sleepiness), and poor emotional and social development.
Harvey's latest health scare came in February 2021 after he appeared to have an allergic reaction to his first Covid vaccine jab.
It was claimed his temperature shot up to 39.9 degrees and he started "shaking uncontrollably" and he was rushed to hospital.
Katie explained that it was Harvey's "complex medication" that he takes for his disabilities that caused a bad reaction to the jab but added he was now safe and well.
What are the risk factors of Prader-Willi syndrome?
As children with PWS can consume three to six times more food than other kids of the same age, there is a huge risk of obesity.
Consuming food compulsively can also lead to your stomach becoming abnormally expanded.
Young adults who have been diagnosed also run the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart failure if they don't control their eating.
Can Prader-Willi syndrome be cured?
As it currently stands, there is no cure for PWS.
Those who have been diagnosed with the condition are encouraged to take measures to lessen the severity of symptoms and associated problems.
Parents of child sufferers are asked to monitor any excessive eating and try to keep balanced and healthy meals on the menu.
How has Katie Price raised awareness for her son Harvey's condition?
Katie is raising awareness on new BBC show Katie Price: Harvey and Me on January 25 at 8.30pm, which documents her life as her son’s carer.
Harvey Price is partially blind, autistic and has Prader-Willi syndrome and mum Katie has made the heart-wrenching decision to put Harvey into care.
She told The Sun: “It breaks my heart. I don’t want him to think I’m just getting rid of him.”
The move will gives him the best chance to forge an independent life and learn new skills.
In the past, Harvey's condition has led to major health concerns, as his condition makes him constantly feel hungry.
Katie had revealed doctors have warned that the battle to keep Harvey alive is “critical” — as he could drop dead from a heart attack if he doesn’t lose weight urgently.
She said: “It’s a cruel illness. He feels hungry all the time. Every time I feed him, it’s killing him.
“Even though it makes him happy, it’s cruel of me to do it.
“He needs to lose weight or he’ll end up dead. He doesn’t deserve that. I don’t want to lose him."
The reality star also says she's a "bloody good mum" and she hates it when people credit her exes for their "polite" kids.
When speaking to The Sun in a brutally honest chat ahead of new BBC documentary Katie Price: Harvey and Me, she declared: "I don't need to justify myself as a mother - I know I'm a bloody good mum.
"I can take my kids anywhere and wherever I've taken my kids, everyone is like, 'I can't believe how polite your kids are they're a pleasure to have', and that is down to me, their parenting and their dads as well."
She added: "The kids love coming to me, I'm completely different, I'm the laid back one.
"They get a bit of both, they get the strict parent and the easy going one where they can stay up later and watch a movie."
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The former glamour model also spoke about Harvey's condition while filming her reality series My Crazy Life.
She said: "If he doesn't sort it out he will die, we've been told, because of his heart."
In a 2017 interview on Loose Women, Katie said: "He never knows when he's full up, he'll do anything he can to feed himself."