A one year old Australian boy has been found to have a rare birth defect which is called Goldenhar Syndrome. The rare birth effect might cause the boy to not be able to learn how to eat or drink in a normal fashion. This Goldenhar Syndrome is an unusual case, where the baby is born with predominant birth defects. In this syndrome the baby’s nose, lip, soft palate, mandible and the ear are underdeveloped. This leads to the baby not being able to eat or drink properly. In short the child has to be fed with a tube.

The parents, Shannon and Joanne White are natives of the encounter Bay, Adelaide. They are not ready to give up hope as yet and they would be travelling to Graz located in Austria. Here they will take part in a course lasting 3 weeks and teaching children how to eat without other’s help. According to the parents they have tried many different ways to make the kids eat. From simple things like rubbing the gums to more complicated things, the parents have tried everything they could. Even doctors have no clue as to what to do with the child. According to the child’s mother Joanne, it is not as easy as advising, where some people ask her to feed something sweet. In this case, it wouldn’t work as the tongue of the boy doesn’t work either.

The trip the parents are going to take with Asher to Austria will cost the couple over 30,000 dollars with the treatment alone costing around 25,000 dollars. According to Joanna there isn’t a similar treatment in Australia though. The parents are trying to do everything they can so that Asher doesn’t have to feed from a tube and instead can use his hands.