THIS ADORABLE little boy was born with a huge hairy black birthmark that leaves his stoic parents having to endure strangers referring to him as having, “dog’s skin” and wrongly asking if they were to blame for smoking during pregnancy.
 
When past Senior Consultant Kanika Aneja (30) from California, USA gave birth to her son, Avyukt Kalra (16 months), she didn’t even notice his birthmark, which medics are still as a loss to explain the cause.
 
In the moment of birth, Kanika and her husband Data Engineer Deepanshu Kalra (31) ’s sole attention was to revive their seemingly unresponsive baby.
 
Medics in the labour room went silent as they grappled with how to understand what was happening to Avyukt.
 
But when their little warrior was revived and the thankful parents took their baby in their arms, his huge black birthmark was unmissable.
 
A sleepless Kanika and Deepanshu, spent days and nights researching their newborn’s condition and it was revealed that the baby was born with Giant Hairy Congenital Melanocytic Nevus(CMN).
 
A rare disease affecting 1 in 5,000,000 births, Giant Congenital melanocytic nevi (CMN) are visible pigmented (melanocytic) proliferations in the skin that are present at birth.  
 
CMN are benign, tumor-like malformations resulting from faulty development of pigment cell (melanocyte) precursors in the embryo, and composed of an abnormal mixture of skin elements. 
 
For the new parents, having a happy living baby at the time of birth was more important than anything else but they do have to endure shocking ignorance from strangers who try to pin the blame on their parenting skills when they see their beautiful son’s appearance.
 
“Whenever we step out, there are looks,” said Kanika.
 
“These looks are not just at him, but at us as well as if this is something we did.
 
“I understand that a lot of people are curious to know about his condition but some turn out to be very very mean.
 
“While some people asked me if it was something I did during a Lunar Eclipse, others asked me if I burnt something when I was pregnant.
 
“People have even gotten to the extent of asking us if we smoked during my pregnancy.
 
“I have even been asked ridiculous questions about whether I scratched my forehead during my pregnancy.
 
“To be honest, I don't know if I maybe felt itchy or have scratched my forehead.”
 
What hurts the parents is when people fail to educate their kids about birthmarks and the children become rude to their innocent son.
 
“One young girl who was around three years old told me in the park that she felt scared after looking at him,” said Kanika.
 
“The little girl said that she didn’t want to look at our son.
 
“I didn’t know how to react except I cried a lot.
 
“People have gone to the extent of saying nasty things like his skin looks like dog's skin.
 
“There are other kids also, who come and ask what it is and are completely ok the other moment. 
 
“They don't make Avyukt or us feel awkward or weird and I heartily appreciate the parenting of these kids, who have said that birthmarks are ok.
 
“He is like any other baby, laughs, smiles, cries and plays.”
 
The parent’s describe how they first came to see their son for the first time.
 
“When we first saw him, we never realised he had a birthmark,” said Kanika.
 
“We just gazed past it, into his eyes.
 
“He was born motionless, and at that time that was more concerning to us than his appearance.
 
“Everyone in the labour room was quiet and there was a wave of confusion, sadness, and inquisitiveness.
 
“Even the doctors had no experience with this, but thankfully he came to and was responsive.
 
“I could not sleep for weeks after his birth and in those initial days we searched the internet about his condition, mainly the cause, and we got connected to other families across the world who have babies with similar conditions. 
 
“From what we could gain from the internet and those discussions with ample doctors was that he has Giant Hairy Congenital Melanocytic Nevus(CMN) and it is because of excessive melanin pigmentation in the skin and until now, medically, there is no cause for this condition.”
 
The new parents were told after an MRI of Avyukt’s brain that his brain was free of any marks or spots, but their sufferings had just begun as relentless people kept commenting things to them.
 
Kanika and Deepanshu found respite on Facebook groups and other parenting groups where people with similar experiences and even otherwise educated their children on birthmarks. Such people and more give them the hope that Avyukt will be able to survive just fine.
 
“I sometimes read other parenting stories on Facebook groups, where parents have the policy of not even discussing beautiful vs ugly topics with their kids,” said Kanika.
 
“I am hopeful that these kids will be friends with my child when he goes to school.
 
“I hope they will not make him feel out of place. 
 
“We have to raise a confident and happy child, who doesn't get affected much by bullying but it's a tough process.
 
“I just know, this young baby has his whole life ahead of him, and he didn't ask for this mark.
 
“He deserves a wonderful childhood like any other kid and should not be answering questions about what his parents have done to cause this birthmark.”
 
Kanika and Deepanshu are still unsure whether to get Avyukt’s birthmark operated and treated or not due to various reasons like multiple surgeries, fear of scarring and the extremely high costs.
 
“At the moment, we are just in the research phase if we want to remove Avyukt’s mark or not,” said Kanika.
 
“Removal will not be without scars and we would basically be replacing the black skin with the scars.
 
“We are not sure if we will opt for it or not.
 
“It is going to be a very expensive procedure ~£200k and the recovery would be around one year with multiple reconstructive surgeries over the later years. 
 
“Just like scars fade away, maybe in some years he might start looking the "normal" way.
 
“I am aware that this is our ongoing struggle.”