My daughter was very badly burned when she was a toddler. She has 50 % scarring all over her body. I'm lucky to have her.
Her face, hands, legs, arms, tummy were particularly bad. Fortunately she still has her features and hair. She has just undergone some plastic surgery to bring the hairline forward, straighten fingers (the scarring distorts them), thin her ear (rugby players). Most invasive though is that she currently has a skin expander in her neck. This is now the size of a goose egg and growing to provide skin to remove scarring on her cheek.
She is 4 1/2 years old and for the first time beginning to become aware that she looks different. This morning she was saying to me that children are teasing her about her 'grinchy' hands and asking her about her neck and that she doesn't like it. In my local area we are known and she doesn't get noticed so often. We are going on holiday on Saturday (Cornwall) and we will be around lots of different children.
At the moment she is the most confident, strong and happy child you could meet. I am worrying that these new environments will start to erode her her self confidence and don't know how to give her the tools to deal with it.
I have looked at advice on the burns websites and changing faces etc.
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Parenting
Dealing with disfigurement in a child
49 replies
Bulletproofmum · 31/07/2014 09:30
OP posts:
Messygirl ·
31/07/2014 22:43
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