A Branson, Missouri, baby surprised her mom and the delivering doctor when she opened her mouth — and revealed a pair of bottom front teeth!
Little Alyssa Bella Bailey was the ‘talk of the delivery’ room, which is completely understandable.
A human infant born with teeth is an incredibly rare occurrence.
According to Alyssa’s mother Jaklina Bailey, “everyone was shocked” when her daughter was born, especially the delivering doctor.
“She said in her 25-year career this is the second time she’s ever seen it… We had two other doctors that came in just to look, and nurses, they were just like, ‘let me see, let me see.’”
Bailey shared that her baby girl would most definitely be bottle-fed.
“I know a lot of people have asked me, ‘does it hurt [to breastfeed?’ Well, I’m bottle feeding.”
It’s perfectly understandable why a mom would opt to feed her toothy newborn baby from a bottle. Though it sounds as though Jaklina intends to use her breast milk, as she emphasized that she would be bottle-feeding her daughter breast milk.
The baby is completely healthy, and though her teeth are extremely rare, they don’t represent any harmful birth defects.
Alyssa has what is known as “ natal teeth “.
It turns out that this happens once in every 2,000 to 3,000 births. When a baby has natal teeth, they are most likely to be on the bottom row.
It’s common for natal teeth to be removed from infants while they are still in the hospital.
Typically this is done if the tooth or teeth are particularly loose and could potentially represent a breathing or choking hazard to the baby.
There doesn’t seem to be any concern about this Missouri baby’s teeth, according to Bailey.
“[The doctors said they’re] just going to grow with the rest of her teeth… [W]e did look online, and the doctor did warn us. We’re going to keep an eye on them — if they do come loose, she could choke on them.”
Although the holiday birth did make this viral news, this isn’t the first time in recent months that a newborn was reported as being born with two front teeth.
“ @DailyMirror : Meet baby born with teeth http://t.co/ITggDwqRwJ pic.twitter.com/5hkUq0PysQ ” ^^ this freaks me out!
— Amy Kiernan (@AmySKiernan) September 20, 2014
In September 2014, the Inquisitr published a report by the Mirror UK about a baby girl born in Wales who had two front teeth.
What was especially interesting about that story is that the natal teeth could have been hereditary.
It’s also worth nothing that Baby Rose’s mom made the attempt to breastfeed and said that her newborn’s teeth didn’t bother her.
[Image Credit: VIVA]