Photo: Shawntel Newton/Instagram
Newton — a former funeral director, who placed fourth on Brad Womack‘s season ofThe Bachelorin 2011 — gave birth to her second child with husband Paolo Poidmore, son Leo, in October, and soon learned after seeing her newborn had a large birthmark covering one side of his face that he had Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS).
“One time I had someoneask me if he had the measles. I cried after that comment,” she said. “I try and understand that to most people he does look a little different but it’s hard on a mommy’s heart to hear things like that.”
Newton went into detail about the incidenton her Instagram accountlate last month, revealing the “innocent comment” occurred when she was at church and about to bring Leo into the nursery.
“Someone stopped me and asked if Leo had the measles. It really caught me off guard,” she recounted. “I told her no and that he has a vascular birthmark and gets laser treatments to help and that’s what she’s seeing. I could tell she felt really bad and was also caught off guard. She didn’t mean any harm to me or Leo.”
“After her comment I was all of a suddenvery aware of people and their stares,” Newton continued. “I kept seeing kids look at Leo and ask their parents what’s wrong with his face. My heart started to break. I had to really hold back my tears. I really wanted to take him away and just hide.”
Leo’s laser treatments, Newton told Fox News, began when he was 5 days old and are in an effort to “whiten” his skin. He also underwent eye surgery at 1 month old to hopefully prevent glaucoma, and is currently on anti-seizure medicationto help prevent a stroke.
“When he was first born, I didn’t text all my friends a picture of him,” Newton told the outlet. “I was processing so much, it took me time to come to terms with what had happened.”
“When he was just 2 days old, it was 1 o’clock in the morningand I was trying to breastfeed himand these thoughts flooded my head: ‘Are people going to make fun of my child? What’s going to happen when he goes to school?’ ”
“We are hoping to instill confidence in him because obviously, his face does look different. But I know that he is going to rock that birthmark,” she added.
source: people.com
