Shannon Willardson of Boise, Idaho, is the mother of three kids, two of whom have particular wants.
Willardson’s TikTok account captures her day-to-day household life, together with the lives of her daughters Ava and Charlie, who each have a uncommon genetic illness.
The mother stood up for herself when she was shamed for letting her daughters with particular wants use pacifiers for consolation.
Willardson posted a POV TikTok defending her daughter’s use of a pacifier, commenting on, “the web shaming me for giving my 7-year-old a pacifier though she’s not typically-developing.” She captioned the publish by stating that “completely different ‘guidelines’ apply for different-needs kiddos.”
“Developmentally my daughters are underneath the age of 1, so it’s not inappropriate for them to have a pacifier—particularly as a result of they considerably assist to consolation them.”
To additional shut down these harsh web critics, Willardson famous that her daughters’ docs, bodily therapists, and occupational therapists all agree that it’s okay for them to make use of pacifiers for consolation.
This specific video, and her web page normally, serves Williardson’s wider mission of bringing visibility to folks elevating children with particular wants. On-line, mom-shaming is rife and Williardson’s web page serves as a reminder that you simply by no means know somebody’s distinctive state of affairs or the the reason why they make the alternatives they do for his or her children.
In one other in style publish on her web page, she captured footage of herself putting considered one of her daughters in a wheelchair, stating, “Shoutout to all of the medical mamas giving their infants the perfect life doable, seeing the sweetness within the arduous, and loving them precisely as they’re.”
Her daughters have CDG, or Congenital Issues of Glycosylation. CDG is outlined as “an umbrella time period for a quickly increasing group of over 130 uncommon genetic, metabolic problems on account of defects in a posh chemical course of generally known as glycosylation.”
The Nationwide Institute of Well being states that “people with a CDG are lacking one of many enzymes that’s required for glycosylation. The kind of CDG that an individual has will depend on which enzyme is lacking.”
The NIH reviews that fewer than 50,000 folks in america have CDG and that signs of CDG begin to seem in somebody affected by the illness as a new child and in infancy.
Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia notes that CDG impacts “the best way sugar constructing blocks are hooked up to proteins inside and on the surfaces of cells” which in flip impacts how cells within the physique perform. CDG varies in its ranges of severity, “from delicate to extreme, disabling or life-threatening.”
Willardson’s daughters are thriving with the devoted care she supplies for them. She acknowledges that the extent of care her daughters want is intense, however she loves them as they’re, and gives them full lives.
Her movies additionally spotlight the significance of outdoor help. In one other video, she recorded her daughterts alongside their full-time nanny and part-time assistant, commenting on the publish that she has “essentially the most concerned [and[ supportive husband on this planet,” and that she lives close to “a lot of household” members who assist out.
“It takes a village,” Willardson exclaims, and anybody with caregiving expertise is aware of how true this assertion is.
Nonetheless Willardson decides to guardian her kids is her selection, and no quantity of web hate can change the truth that she is aware of what’s finest for her household.
Alexandra Blogier is a author on YourTango’s information and leisure workforce. She covers movie star gossip, popular culture evaluation and all issues to do with the leisure business.
