When babies are born, they are dependent on those around them for everything, and this can make it seem that they really don’t know or understand very much. While there’s lots your baby will learn, especially during the first years after birth, newborn babies have skills you might not expect. We are fascinated by child development, but I believe that you’ve never imagined to see this.
The baby’s adoptive parents parents couldn’t understand why their adopted daughter’s stomach was growing larger overnight and feared it could be a tumour. Her swollen belly made her look pregnant and drew taunts from neighbours who branded her “a monster”. The worried parents took their 18-month-old daughter, Kang, to the hospital to be examined by professionals. The doctors reportedly discovered that she had an extremely rare condition, which affects 1 in 500,000 births – when one twin in the womb grows larger than the other and envelops its smaller sibling.
The doctors also told the parents that the second foetus never fully develops, but continues to grow within the first baby, feeding off it like a parasite. It left Kang, from China, unable to eat solid food and spending her time in constant pain. Kang had already had a difficult start to life. Just days old, she was abandoned in a field by her parents. Her cries were heard by farm worker Wang who took her home and nursed her back to health. Wang and her husband Xiqing had no children of their own and were allowed to foster Kang.
The brave couple then took the baby to doctors who explained that Kang had an unborn twin growing inside her, and that it was crushing her organs as it grew. Her life was hanging in the balance, but her parents with a combined income of $450 a year, couldn’t afford the $1,300 operation that their daughter so desperately needed. Help arrived in the for of the Red Cross who raised the funds for Kang through and appeal. She was rushed into surgery and after a grueling 10-hour operation, Kang recovered well and will be able to live a normal life. Her grateful mother thanked the Red Cross, saying: “We’re very grateful. We were so worried she would die. Before she used to cry in pain and hold her bump like a pregnant woman. Now we can hope she can have a normal life.”