Baby born without a skull suffers online abuse

First time parents Brittany and Brandon Buell were told by doctors their unborn child had a rare brain condition and should be aborted.

The Florida couple refused the advice and while their son, Jaxon, was born with most of his skull and brain missing, they have recently celebrated his first birthday - a milestone he was not expected to make.

But Jaxon's father has revealed the family has suffered abuse from strangers following media coverage of his son's progress.

People have said that "we are selfish parents for not choosing to have an abortion," he wrote on Facebook.

"We would never choose to play God in that situation, when we had been given a child, and it was our job to give him a chance to live."

Buell said doctors were unable to confirm an exact outcome but advised there would be no added risks to his wife's pregnancy.

"We did make sure to ask if Jaxon was in pain or was suffering... since the answer to both questions was 'no', we never came close to considering abortion."

One year on, he described the struggles faced by his son as "normal" for their family.

"It's normal to embrace him as he goes through his startle seizures multiple times a day. It's normal to look at Jaxon and see a perfectly created boy and other babies truly do look weird and oversized to us. And, it's normal to take Jaxon in public and always feel the looks, the stares, and the glances, usually from people that don't even realise that they're doing it."

He said the unkind comments from strangers are "baffling".

"There are so many things about Jaxon, our family, and his story that are completely misunderstood. It's baffling to hear or see other people's opinions on our baby that have never met him, that somehow know how he thinks, how he acts, how he feels, how much of what he does is voluntary or involuntary, how he is always in pain."

Jaxon has become a social media sensation with almost 100,000 likes on a Facebook page and over $50,000 in donations from a crowd funding page set up to assist his mother to care for him.

Read Brandon Buell's full post here.

- NZ Herald