The Orange Baby!

They say each color in the spectrum has a special meaning. The color orange is considered an energetic and enthusiastic color. It’s considered a warm and pleasant color. This is a true story involving the color orange.

Our daughter was born in 1978 in Houston Texas. It was a normal birth and a normal baby by all accounts. Things progressed well and we started feeding her solid foods after awhile which meant she would sleep through the night. Something we very much appreciated because we both worked.

A problem developed with the baby. She was turning orange. At first it was just a slight color change and it became progressively worse. It reached a point where it got downright scary. She had turned orange from head to toe. Everything about her turned orange.

Her eyes, tongue, skin, lips, fingernails and hair all turned orange. We naturally became very concerned and made an appointment with our pediatrician. Our doctor was probably in his 70’s and been practicing over 40 years. He thought he had seen everything until we walked in with an orange baby.

I was thinking he may send us to New York’s Mayo Clinic or perhaps we may have to go to Europe to diagnose this problem. The good doctor did his examination. Then he took a deep breath and exhaled. He had never seen an orange baby.

You could tell he was in deep thought as he tried desperately to figure out what was wrong. There was a long pause of silence. Then he looked at my wife and said in his strong West Texas accent. “Ma’am, I want to ask you a question. What in the hell have you been feeding this baby?”

My wife replied kinda sheepishly, “Carrots.” He looked at her like a father would his daughter. He said, “I’m gonna make you a bet. If you will start feeding her a variety of different foods like corn, green beans, mixed vegetables and the like. The next time you bring her in she won’t look like she’s been delivered by aliens from outer space.”

I couldn’t help it but I busted out laughing. The doctor had a little grin on his countenance but he was serious. He admitted this was a first for him. He had seen everything in his career until we came in that day with an orange baby. This wasn’t his first rodeo but it was his first orange baby.

It didn’t take long and things began to change. The orange slowly faded away to natural looking skin tone. It’s been a little over 46 years ago. Our daughter is now a medical professional herself with her own children. But I still remember when she was orange.