Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

You may be wondering why I have included the picture above in my blog post today. It is a photo of a little girl with primordial dwarfism with her brother. You can see how very tiny she is. Primordialdwarfism.com says, "Primordial Dwarfism is a category of disorders with many subtypes. The exact definition can vary from one type to another, but all are defined primarily by extreme short stature at birth. Unlike many other forms of Dwarfism, Primordial Dwarfism differs in that all of the bones and organs of the body are proportionally smaller than in an average person. When looking at a picture of an individual with Primordial Dwarfism, it can actually be difficult to realize how much smaller than an average person they are, unless there is something else in the photo to use for comparison."

When we went to get fish last night, the young girl checking us out asked my parents how old I am. Now this is a common question - almost anytime we go through some type of checkout line that is the question everyone always asks. Since my parents haven't had any other children they aren't sure if all parents get that or if it is something they are asked frequently because of my size. When my parents told this particular checkout girl my age, she asked if I had some type of syndrome. Daddy responded with the name of my syndrome and we weren't surprised she had never heard of it. Her response was something to the effect that she had recently watched a program about really small children and wondered if I had the same thing. Mommy has seen the program on TLC she is referring to so she knew she was talking about primordial dwarfism. Now I admit I am pretty small but it's the first time anyone has asked my parents if I was a dwarf. In some ways, telling people I am a little person would be much more simple then trying to explain Nager syndrome.

The subject of my size has long been a source of controversy. Just a few weeks ago as Mommy was carrying me through security on her hip at Salt Lake airport she was asked the standard question - how old am I? When Mommy responded "almost 2 1/2" the security agent said "wow, she's really big". Mommy was stunned by this response - nobody ever says I look big for my age. As Mommy thought about it later she decided that my body in comparison to her's (her being only 5'1'') maybe I did look big. So that is how I am going to approach my size - it is all about perspective.

Peyton Nicole Smith