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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Akanksha Soni & Kieren Williams

Girl, 4, forced to eat 2,100 calories a day due to rare condition that makes skin grow

A four-year-old girl is forced to consume 2,100 calories a day because of a rare condition that makes her skin grow quickly.

Anna Riley, from New York, USA, suffers from Harlequin Ichthyosis, a rare condition which causes skin to grow far faster than normal.

This leads to the top layer of her skin not forming correctly, causing severe dryness and redness, which affects Anna's entire body.

Her skin started hardening only a few seconds after she was born, but thanks to advancements in medical care and technology, Anna has lived a relatively normal life.

But one side effect of her body growing so much extra skin is that she has to consume so many more calories to keep up.

Young tot Anna with her mum Jennie (mediadrumimages.com/@harlequindi)

The four-year-old has to eat 2,100 calories a day, the same as a grown woman.

She also has three-hour baths every morning and needs to be covered in a healing ointment every couple of hours.

Mum Jennie said: "She still has to take a three-hour bath every morning so we have a delayed start right now for school.

The 4-year-old's skin started hardening seconds after birth confusing medical professionals at fist (mediadrumimages.com/@harlequindi)

"She doesn't go in until 10 o'clock because of everything that we have to do in the morning.

"But there is a nurse in school so if she gets uncomfortable she can have lotion applied, and she also has a full-time aid to help her with anything she needs.

"People have been incredibly accepting of Anna and her skin condition, she has a lot of friends in school."

Due to her condition, Anna, 4, must eat 2,100 calories every single day (mediadrumimages.com/@harlequindi)

But despite her condition, Anna loves life like any four-year-old, she loves princesses and is a huge fan of cooking and baking.

Jennie added: "Right now she is not at an age where she has asked us questions about what her condition means.

"She knows that her skin is pink and she loves that her whole body is pink as it's her favourite colour.

Anna has million of followers across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook (mediadrumimages.com/@harlequindi)

"I don't know if she understands fully the physical effects quite yet, but she's very confident about her skin.

"She gets some odd looks from other children at the park sometimes, but she hasn't noticed that yet.

"I have had to explain her condition to other parents, I usually try to break the ice with people and explain it's a medical condition.

"Even in real life people have been very accepting of her, she's a happy jolly kid and you see very easily that her skin is all that's different about her."

Anna with her mum Jennie (mediadrumimages.com/@harlequindi)

Mum Jennie also uses social media to promote her daughter's condition and the young tot has 130,000 Instagram followers, 179,000 on Facebook and nearly one million followers on TikTok.

They use the platform to spread awareness and raise money to help others who suffer from Ichthyosis.

They money goes towards lotions and cooling vests and bathtubs to help those in need.

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