Their tot’s happiness is contagious, but her smile hides a sad diagnosis.
From the time she was a few days old, beautiful blonde tot Coco-Maria Martinengo engaged with everyone around her, giving smiles and little chuckles. For her parents, Kim Martinengo and Jo Galvin, Coco’s sunny nature was both a source of delight – and a concern.
“The day she was born, I thought instinctively there was something wrong with her,” says her mum Jo, 33, a photographer and ceramic artist.
Coco was small, struggled to feed, barely slept and wasn’t meeting her milestones. More mysteriously, though, the wee girl had a constant smile and a strange fascination with water – making a beeline for anyone holding a glass of water, obsessing over the water play at preschool and refusing to get out of the bath.
“I was concerned, but I knew I’d look crazy if I went to the doctor and said, ‘My baby is too happy and loves water too much,’” recalls Jo.
Her partner Kim, a project manager who contracts to the Auckland City Council for public art works, recalls, “Jo was worried for a long time, but I thought, ‘All babies are different.’”
The 48-year-old – who also has two older children, Poppy, 20, and Hemi, six – says, “It wasn’t until Coco was about one that I agreed something was wrong.”
Jo and Kim talked to their doctor, and Coco was referred to a paediatrician. “I think he took one look at her and just knew,” tells Jo.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة 28 August 2017 من Woman’s Day Magazine NZ.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة 28 August 2017 من Woman’s Day Magazine NZ.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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