Mom Births Baby with Huge Life-Threatening Tongue — Tot Finally Smiles over a Year Later

• A woman blamed herself and got emotional after birthing a baby with a life-threatening adult-sized tongue.
• She opened up about the difficult process of helping her baby get back to a healthy life.
• The baby girl finally showed her adorable smile six months after birth.

Paisley Morrison-Johnson was born with a tongue the size of an adult. The tongue worried doctors, who felt it would suffocate her.

Six months after being born, Paisley got the medical help she needed and can now live a normal life.

Madison Kienow, Paisley’s mother, noted that she counted her baby girl’s toes, fingers, ears, and eyes during the ultrasound.

However, when she saw her tongue, Madison joked, “Oh cute, she likes sticking her tongue out.” Madison soon gave birth via cesarean section, and doctors immediately knew something was wrong.

Her tongue was so large that it completely filled her oral cavity. Doctor quickly hooked up the baby to a ventilator to ensure she could breathe.

Madison, who was being stitched up, did not get to hold her baby when she was born. She remembered the experience:

“It was a really emotional I got to see her, but I was being stitched up, and they just wheeled an omni bed over to me, and there I saw her, you know, just tubes and cords.”

Surgeons also told Madison that her baby’s tongue was the largest they had ever seen, especially for an infant.

Multiple doctors and specialists embarked on finding the reasons why Paisley had an adult-sized tongue, and they soon found out the cause.

When Paisley turned 16 months, her mother said her daughter had become “one of the most facial expressed babies ever.”

Doctors at the hospital Madison gave birth in Aberdeen, South Dakota, didn’t know what caused her baby’s adult-sized tongue. So, they flew Paisley to a specialist in Sioux Falls.

Madison met a team of specialists who couldn’t find out what conditions were affecting her daughter, and she soon became discouraged. However, doctors diagnosed Paisley with Beckwith-Wiedman Syndrome, which had caused her adult-sized tongue. Madison said she was devastated:

“I was blaming it on me. What did I do during my pregnancy that was wrong? But it was nothing that I could have prevented. It was just what she was born with. Jesus wanted me to have something a little extra special.”

Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome is a genetic condition that causes abnormal growth in specific parts of a person’s body. It is a rare genetic condition that affects 1 in 13700 newborns worldwide.

Immediately Madison knew what ailed her daughter; she began consulting with specialists to see what could be done. Three months later, specialists conducted surgery to reduce the size of Paisley’s tongue.

Paisley had a second surgery done to further reduce her tongue size. Madison said she would never forget the look of satisfaction on the surgeon’s face when he walked into the recovery room. The surgeon said:

“Wow, that was quite the surgery!”

The tongue is a muscular organ that can grow back, meaning Paisley’s tongue could become a larger size than normal again.

However, specialists note that the growth disorder generally slows down as children grow older. They said most kids grow to have healthy lives.

At the moment, Paisley’s second surgery reduced a significant portion of her tongue and enabled her to close her mouth.

Before her surgeries, Madison said her baby’s tongue was constantly sticking out. She noted that Paisley would always be chewing her tongue because it took up so much room in her tongue.”It always looked like she was making silly faces,” Madison added.

After her surgeries, Madison couldn’t believe how beautiful her daughter looked. She was shocked by the immense change. She revealed that since Paisley recovered from the surgeries, her baby smiled for the very first time. Madison remarked:

“She couldn’t even make the sounds to say words like ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ before because of the size of her tongue, so this feels like a massive achievement.”

Her mother also said Paisley’s life got so much better since the surgery. Her mother no longer had to worry about her baby choking.

Paisley started saying her first words; she began eating adult foods, her teeth also began growing, and she took her first steps.

When Paisley turned 16 months, her mother said her daughter had become “one of the most facial expressed babies ever.” Madison added:

“She is growing up, and she has so much spunk and personality and love. She’s just amazing.”

Doctors said Paisley’s tot would be monitored every three months until she turned eight years. They added that at eight, her chances of developing cancerous tumors triggered by the syndrome would drop dramatically.

However, her mother was optimistic and said Paisley was a determined girl who had a lot of fight within her.

Want more like this? Click here to read about a mother who was told to hide her wrinkled baby. The baby turned into a handsome man years later.