5-yr-old Brit girl with rare disorder sheds her skin every day

LONDON - Life can’t get more troublesome for the five-year-old girl from UK, who sheds her skin 14 times a day-unlike others who shed skin once in 23 days.

Annabelle Whitehouse has been diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder Ichthyosis that has caused the youngster’s skin to turn red, sore and flaky since her birth.

Her parents, Sonia and Paul from Sutton Coldfield, West Mids, have to smother her in cream to keep the condition tolerable for the little girl.

They have also tried to protect their daughter from the cruel comments and jibes strangers frequently make when they spot Annabelle.

“Once when we were on holiday, a taxi driver asked if we had put Annabelle in the microwave,” the Daily Mail quoted mum as saying.

“Others have even accused us of allowing her to get badly sunburned.

“We spend so much time each day caring for Annabelle that we find it incomprehensible people would accuse us of deliberately allowing her to come to harm,” she said.

When Annabelle was born she was covered in a thick armoured skin casing, called a collodian membrane, which squashed her ears, nose, hands and feet.

Eventually it lifted away after special medical treatment, and the couple were able to see their child’s features for the first time.

But parents have to cream her daily and wrap her in bandages to ensure her skin does not harden or crack open, which can create painful wounds.

“When Annabelle was born we knew straight away that something was wrong. The room fell silent and I thought she was dead at one point.

“She was quickly diagnosed with Ichthyosis by a doctor at the hospital who had worked in Africa and who had seen the condition over there.

“It turned out that both Paul and I were carriers of the gene that causes the condition but it was a three in one million chance that any of our children would get the illness,” said Sonia.

For nine months the couple creamed fragile Annabelle every hour, day and night.

Now, Annabelle is able to do things such as ballet and horse riding, but initially it was not easy for the little girl to cope with her skin condition. (ANI)