NYAHURURU, Kenya, Oct 16 – The woman who gave birth to a baby boy with 28 teeth has spoken of her shock and fear moments after she realised her newborn’s dental anomaly.
30-year-old Martha Muthoni of Ndunduri village in Nyandarua County says she noticed the baby’s teeth after she felt it biting her when breastfeeding.
“I first saw his two front teeth,” she told Capital News on Friday.
“When I told my husband what I had seen, his initial reaction was to brush me off. But when I insisted and showed him our baby’s mouth, he freaked out, handed the baby back to me and walked away!” she said.
Three days later, the father had to report back to work in Nakuru which is quite a distant from Ndunduri village, leaving Ms Muthoni to take care of their new born baby James Mwangi.
Ms Muthoni who has three other children took her ‘miracle’ baby to the nearby dispensary where the clinical officer verified the natal teeth and referred them to the Nakuru Provincial General Hospital for specialised check-up.
“He advised me to bottle-feed the baby and I consented because baby Mwangi was now hurting my nipples with his teeth,” she said, speaking calmly to our correspondent.
“This phenomenon has baffled us all; even my parents are shocked because such a thing has never happened in our living memory!”
Neighbours have come forth to encourage Ms Muthoni although the entire village has turned its collective attention to her strange newborn.
“At first I even feared to enter the house, as I did not know what other powers the baby had,” narrated one close neighbour.
“But when I noticed how strong Muthoni was I decided to stand by her side. Now everybody is slowly coming to terms with the phenomenon and willing to accept baby Mwangi as one of us in this village.”
One Brazilian study in 1998 showed natal teeth were more common among girls.
Experts are still baffled as to what causes the anomaly but they say hereditary or family patterns do play a part.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZnKOw4seYc
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