By Ronnie Koenig Sep 27th 2010

Annabelle Whitehouse is a 5-year old girl with a rare genetic disorder that causes her to shed her skin 14 times a day.





The little girl, who hails from West Midlandsin the United Kingdom, was diagnosed with ichthyosis at birth. Her skin turns red, sore and flaky, and her parents, Sonia and Paul, must smother her in cream multiple times during the day.

At birth, Annabelle was coated in a thick casing of skin called a collodian, which obscured her facial features.





“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,” Sonia, 45, told the Daily Mail.





But the skin casing was lifted away, and Annabelle was diagnosed with ichthyosis, a condition her doctor had seen before in Africa. Sonia and Paul are both carriers of the gene that causes the condition, but it was a one in 3 million chance that either of their two daughters would get the genetic disorder. Annabelle’s 8-year-old sister, Lydia,does not have the condition.

In addition to constantly treating their daughter’s condition, the couple must put up with the ignorant comments that strangers often make.





“Once when we were on holiday, a taxi driver asked if we had put Annabelle in the microwave. Others have even accused us of allowing her to get badly sunburned,” Sonia told the Mail.

For nine months, the couple applied cream to their daughter on an hourly basis. Since she has shown improvement, the little girl is now creamed and bandaged four times a day, though the exposed skin on her hands and face are treated every 30 minutes.





The family wants nothing more than for their daughter to live a normal life — to go to school, have friends and eventually have a boyfriend. They took Annabelle to a child psychologist who helped her see that beauty comes in different forms. Now the youngster participates in ballet and horseback riding.

Dr. Joan E. Tamburro, a pediatric dermatologist at UniversityHospitalsCaseMedicalCenter,says it’s possible for both parents to have been carriers of the gene that causes ichthyosis but to have been unaware of it since there were no symptoms.

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