Tristan Enderle was born with no stomach and survived for five years. Now, he has made another history by taking his first meal in five years after he was born without a stomach.
Tiny Tristan, five, of Cambridge, suffers from extremely rare Russell Silver Syndrome and couldn't swallow food because his tummy had not properly developed.
Mum Celia, 39, who had to feed Tristan through a drip before teaching him to eat properly, said: "Children who have the illness are nicknamed the 'real Thumbalinas' because they're just so tiny and thin.
"I've spoken to a lot of other mums and dads that didn't know at first that their child has the illness, and the children have actually been taken into care because they look malnourished.
"I've seen kids the same age as Tristan wearing baby clothes, they're that small – they're as small as little dolls.
"I knew something was wrong with him when he was born, mainly because he was so small, but also because everytime I tried to breast feed him he'd throw it back up in my face.
"He was literally like an Exorcist child – it would come out at such a speed it would be quite shocking."
Celia's pregnancy was normal up until 20 weeks when her midwife found the placenta was blocking her womb, causing difficulties with childbirth.
She said: "When he came out so small I thought the placenta had something to do with it, so I was mortified.
"I just kept thinking the whole thing was my fault, and to say I felt devestated was a huge understatement."
Baffled doctors eventually diagnosed the tot with the growth disorder, which affects one in every 50,000 births and characterised by dwarfism and triangular-shaped faces.
Tristan has taken his first meal in five years
Celia, also mum to Bethan, four, began the tiring battle to teach her baby how to eat, prompting years of tears and sleepless nights.
Celia said: "Because he wasn't eating, I'd be keeping him alive by getting up every hour in the night to feed him.
"It was just so physically exhausting and I couldn't even feed him my breast milk because he was allergic to that.
"It was like there was literally everything was wrong with him – his jaw hadn't grown properly in the womb, and when the nurses told me all this I went bananas – all I wanted was to help him."
Desperate, Celia enlisted the help of a specialist feeding programme and got training on how to encourage Tristan's eating, which changed his life.
Celia said: "It was a slow process as his stomach is still growing and developing with every mouthful.
"He takes around 45 minutes to eat one meal but compared to how bad he was before it's amazing and he's come such a long way.
"Feeding him before this was a nightmare."
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