Doctors make shock diagnosis after mum says newborn looked nothing like her
Doctors were able to diagnose a baby with an incredibly rare condition after a mum noticed that her newborn looked nothing like her.
Mum Hannah Doyle, 36, says that her 'mother's instinct' told her something was wrong when she held her baby boy Zander.
He didn't look like her or his dad, and had particularly swollen eyes.
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After further investigation, Zander was diagnosed with Chromosome Deletion Syndrome, a rare condition that means he has a loss of chromosomes.
Hannah hasn't been able to find anyone who has the same condition yet, so it's not yet known how this condition will affect him in the future.
"When I held him to do skin-to-skin contact, he was just different to my other babies and I instantly knew there was something different," she said.
"When I looked at his eyes, they were very swollen and did look a bit almond like.
"I do believe to this day that it was him telling me, because his eyes look totally different now.
"Now he does look very much like his dad but when he was first born he did look very different."
Hannah first became worried about her baby boy when she was just 26 weeks pregnant and was told that Zander had two holes in his heart.
But she was still 'very shocked' when she got his diagnosis.
The mum, who is separated from Zander's father, said: "I was very shocked because I think I had always known that it was a possibility.
"It was a shock and it felt really daunting and really scary because your mind goes into overload and you just start thinking the worst.
"It was harder because there wasn't really much explanation to it.
"The cardiologist was the one that told me the initial diagnosis but he couldn't comment on it or anything."
Despite his condition, Zander - now aged 10 weeks - is a 'happy little baby,' though it's now a 'waiting game' to find out how he will be affected in the future.
"That's the hardest thing because with any other medical condition, there's more answers," said Hannah.
"Particularly when I can't find anyone else with the same particular deletion that he's got missing so there's not even anyone else to compare him to.
"It could have no impact on him whatsoever or it could, but the not knowing is hard because you read things and wonder if it will impact him."
The single mum of four is trying to spread awareness of Zander's condition, and has started posting videos on TikTok about Chromosome Deletion Syndrome.
"Sometimes I must admit that as a parent, I think it would have been better to have not known this," she shared.
"But I know it's better to know so I can understand him if there is any difficulties so I want to spread awareness so lots of other children are just better understood.
"I think children are so easily labeled and judged for certain behaviours when actually they could be so many more reasons behind that."
Ali Condon