Like most girls her age, Charlotte Garside loves Barbie dolls, stuffed animals and everything pink.
But as she snuggles up with her favorite teddy bear, it becomes clear that this remarkable two-year-old is truly one of a kind.
Smaller than most of her toys, Charlotte weighs just 7lb 8oz and is 58cm tall, making her the world’s smallest girl.
Born at 1 pound 1 ounce, her parents had to dress her in doll clothes because even preemie clothes were too big.
Now that she’s almost three years old, Charlotte still has to wear newborn baby dresses.
Born with a rare form of primordial dwarfism that has slowed her growth and development, doctors say she won’t reach 2 feet tall.
Its symptoms have never been seen together in a single person, so experts have struggled to give it a name.
At home, she is surrounded by baby things: a hammock and three pairs of miniature pink shoes made especially for her that she will never be without.
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Charlotte’s mother, Emma Newman, explains: “We’ve had so many tests and so many results, but so far all we know is that she has some kind of primordial dwarfism, Charlotte’s kind.
“We have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what makes her different and what we can do to help her.
“But all we know is that Charlotte is really unique. She has been through a lot in such a short life.
“So many tests and hospital visits, but she takes it all in stride.
“There are no details, so we don’t know how long Charlotte will be with us. We wait as long as anyone else, but we just don’t know.
“We are just enjoying family life. She may be small, but anyone who has met her will tell you that she has a big personality.
“Since the day he was born, he has brought something very special to all of our lives.”
Surprisingly, doctors did not detect Charlotte’s condition until she was born in August 2007. Despite all the usual examinations, 28-year-old Emma, from Withernsea, near Hull, had no reason to suspect anything was amiss.
He already had three daughters, Chloe, 13, Sabrina, 10, and Sophie, six. The girls, along with builder dad Scott Garside, 24, were excited to have another child.
And her baby belly was huge. “I had the scans and everything seemed fine,” says Emma. “It was huge, so we didn’t think there was anything to worry about.”
When she went into labor four weeks early, something that often happens with primordial dwarf babies, doctors at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, W Yorks, thought she might have the dates wrong.
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“They examined me and said I was only 24 weeks pregnant, but I had already had ultrasounds and I knew that wasn’t right,” says Emma. “I started to panic.”
“From having a normal and healthy pregnancy, everything started to change and suddenly they told me that there was a problem with my baby.
“I was in a lot of pain and in an emotional state. No one seemed to know what was going on, other than that my baby might be premature.
“The doctors said to be prepared for the fact that it was going to be very small. I thought they meant three or four pounds.”
By contrast, when Charlotte was born via emergency C-section, she was 10 inches long and weighed just 1 pound 1 ounce.
When Emma was brought to meet her in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, she was stunned.
“I just started crying. I didn’t want it to be real,” he says quietly. “She looked so small and so fragile, like she could snap in two. It was covered in bubble wrap, with this tiny little head sticking out. It looked like a skinned rabbit. I just wasn’t prepared for how small it was.
“And their facial features were different.
“They allowed me to pick her up the next day, it was a very emotional moment. I just wanted to protect her, but I didn’t know if I would be able to do it.”
Opening a treasured ‘baby box’, Emma looks tearful as she takes Charlotte’s first pacifier, no bigger than a 10p piece, and a credit card-sized diaper.
“We had to lift her up in a bean bag because she was so small,” she smiles. “When I was a little older, I could put it in my pocket.”
After a few days, doctors diagnosed Majewski’s osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism (MOPD), a genetic condition that affects 100 people worldwide and that Emma and Scott discovered they both carried.
“When they told me I called my mom and Scott, we just sat down and cried,” Emma says. “I had never heard of anything like this before.
“We had no idea what we were dealing with, we just knew that our daughter might be sick and we didn’t know what was going to happen next.
“When they tell you it’s genetic you feel guilty but there’s nothing you can do. And it affects the whole family: when they are old enough, our daughters will have to be tested to see if they are carriers as well.”
Charlotte spent 13 weeks in the hospital before she was allowed to return home.
Emma says: “Her older sisters would cry sometimes, they just wanted to know when she would grow up.
“They knew she was small and we explained that this meant she could be in trouble and yes, there was a chance Charlotte might not be with us forever. We had to be honest. It was a confusing and emotional time for all of us.”
However, the family knows that they are luckier than some. Charlotte was diagnosed with a combination of MOPD types 1 and 3. Patients with type 1 diabetes rarely live past their third birthday, but Charlotte appears to have avoided the most serious symptoms, including life-threatening brain aneurysms.
Although doctors cannot predict how long he will survive, for now his health seems good.
He is growing very slowly and his mental and physical development is good, if a bit delayed. However, he has problems: his immune system is not as strong and he has cysts on his liver.
And although she is fed through a tube in her stomach because she could choke on solid food, her family hopes she will be able to eat one day.
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