Mum calls daughter ‘mermaid baby’ due to rare skin condition

A mum is calling her daughter a "mermaid baby" due to a condition which causes her skin to shed at an alarming rate.

Maryam Bibi, or Mary, was born with ichthyosis meaning that her skin grows ten times the rate that it should. The seven-month-old's skin then becomes irritated and dry before peeling off and leaving her covered in patchy patterns that Maryam's mum Maira thinks looks like mermaid scales. The Birmingham mum said that when Mary was born, she was afraid that she would suffer from mild eczema like she did as a teenager. On her daughter's GoFundMe page, Maira explained her daughter's condition.

"For the first time in our lives the words 'Congenital Ichthyosis' were thrown at us. This affects one in 600,000 people and is very rare. The doctors explained that ichthyosis is basically a family of genetic skin disorders characterized by dry, scaling skin that may be thickened and that there are many different types. Some mild, some more severe."

Mairi went on to say that the condition affects people for their entire lives and that doctors have yet to find a cure.

"Ichthyosis is disfiguring for most affected individuals. In addition to the numerous medical complications like dehydration, infections, chronic blistering, overheating, and rapid-calorie loss, people with ichthyosis are subjected to psychological issues."

Mary needs constant moisturisation meaning that mum Maira and dad Azmat Khan need to tend to their baby's skin every two to three hours. Their daughter also needs to be given an eye ointment every few hours to stop her eyes from drying out. Maira said that since her birth, Mary has not blinked once due to the severe tightness of the skin around her eyes. She also suffers from sores and blisters regularly because she has started to scratch herself. https://twitter.com/DailyMailUK/status/908015429456719872

"I pray to God my baby grows out of this skin.

The worst part for me as a mother is that most the things mums do with their little girls, I will never be able to do.

The fact that it's a lifelong condition means ill never be able to play makeup with her, do mehndi on her, dress her up in fancy clothes (as she can wear only cotton... most pretty stuff comes in lace and other materials). A lot of things are restricted because of her skin."

Maira said she wants to raise money to buy things for her daughter that will help her live her life easier - like cotton bedding, extra clothes, and a microbath.

The 21-year-old mum also said that she wants to educate people about the condition as it is largely unheard of.

Images via GoFundMe.