EXCLUSIVE: Rachael Fleming tells OK! why noticing white flecks in the centre of her newborn son’s pupils was the start of a worrying journey that could have led to him going blind
Rachael Fleming, 38, lives in Ellesmere Port on the Wirral with daughter Liliana, two, and son Leonard, 15 months. Trusting her ‘mother’s instinct’ about baby Lennie led to the shocking discovery that he had cataracts - a health concern that affects around three to four in every 10,000 babies born in the UK.
Lennie was a big, bouncing, healthy baby! But back home, I couldn’t shake my concern about those white specks. Then he began having what seemed to be reflux attacks. Every now and then, he hunched his shoulders and brought his knees up, as though he had stomach pain or indigestion.But the attacks continued. They seemed to come in clusters and Lennie would open his mouth wide and scream. It was obvious he was in pain, and I felt so helpless.
Afterwards, I said: “I have a gut feeling something’s wrong.” I took Lennie to A&E at Macclesfield hospital in Cheshire and he was admitted for observation. It wasn’t long before he had one of his attacks and luckily the doctors were there to see it. Cataracts are cloudy patches that develop on the lens, which can usually be treated with surgery. I’d heard of the condition in elderly people, of course, but never in a baby.
It was heartbreaking. Yet it all made sense. My mum instinct had been right all along. Lennie had his first eye surgery, aged seven months, in August last year. The nurses let me rock him to sleep before they put the cannula in. When the nurse put them on him in the hospital, he took a moment or so to get used to them. Then he looked up at me from his pram and gave me the most beautiful smile. It was a moment that melted my heart, and I will never forget it.
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