At first glance, Sophia Hecimovic looks like a two-year-old girl the size of a doll. However, the Australian toddler is in fact four-years-old. She’s 88cm tall and weighs about 12kg.
According to tests results, Sophia’s body is producing growth hormones—another reason why doctors are so puzzled that the child isn’t physically growing.
“It’s frustrating because we don’t have an answer as to why she’s so much smaller than other children her age,” Sophia’s mother, Effie Panayiotou, as per a You News story.
To make matters even more tough, Sophia’s also having certain developmental problems.
“Developmentally she’s behind as well—it took two-and-a-half years for her to learn to walk,” Effie added.
Photo credit: Effie Panayiotou / Facebook
But these things don’t prevent the toddler from enjoying life.
Like most little girls, Sophia likes Disney princesses, animals, reading. Not only that, her mom also said that Sophia is sociable and possessed with a big personality.
“She can light up any room she goes into,” says a Facebook post dedicated to her called A Kouklitsa Called Sophia. “She’s like every other normal kid though and loves her dance classes and swimming lessons.”
It surprises people when they see her because she’s so small, and especially when they find out how old she actually is.
Last year she grew a total of 8 cm.
“When she was born in June 2012 Sophia weighed just more than 1.8 kg. She was only 46 cm tall–less than the average for a new-born baby,” the report said. “When she sat beside a doll her mom had bought for her she was shorter than it. She was kept in hospital for three weeks and monitored but doctors had no explanation for her size.”
At five-months-old, Sophia was able to speak, saying “mommy” and “dog,” but when she turned a year old, she stopped speaking altogether.
Sophia was initially misdiagnosed with a condition called Robinow Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder affecting bone development.
At two, she was then diagnosed with high functioning autism.
Photo credit: Effie Panayiotou / Facebook
Despite the many setbacks that Sophia is facing, she and her mother aren’t giving up just yet.
She is now part of a learning group in order to cope with life’s increasing demands, and he also receives physiotherapy among many other treatments.
So far these treatments seem to be working.
According to Effie, she can already see the positive improvements in her daughter’s mobility thanks to her physical therapy sessions.
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