Angel Coco-Our Girl's Sweet Disorder

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.