Mom Of First Gerber Baby With Down Syndrome Still Believes In Humanity

March 23, 2018 10:26

This year, the Gerber baby contest has a new winner. And it’s Lucas Warren, a 1-year-old from Dalton, Georgia. He is the first child with Down syndrome to be named a Gerber baby since the beginning of the contest.

Публикация от @gerber 14 Фев 2018 в 9:14 PST

In late 1928, Fremont Canning Company was looking for a baby face to represent their new baby-food campaign. They organized a contest to which many drawings and paintings were submitted, but the winner was a charcoal drawing by Dorothy Hope Smith. Her drawing remained the face of the product until the beginning of 2011 when the company started looking for the next Gerber Baby, which eventually became a toddler named Mary Jane Montoya.

In 2018, the company chose another face to represent their product – Lucas Warren. His mom, Cortney, entered him in the contest on a whim. But the minute she did it, she felt fear creeping up:

Most parents of kids with Down syndrome, including myself, have the opposite instinct. We’re afraid we need to hide our kids. We ask ourselves those scary questions: Will the world love my child if I put him out there? When strangers say my baby is cute, do they mean it, or do they just feel sorry for us?

Six months later, and Lucas’ smiling face is known across the world. He has appeared in numerous newspapers and articles online and even visited The Today Show.

The reaction to Lucas, however, taught me the world is more full of love than I ever thought possible. Humanity is better than I thought. People weren’t just ready to accept Lucas. They were ready to embrace him.

Cortney now hopes that people will see Lucas not only as a baby with Down syndrome but also as a smiling, funny child full of energy who loves music and socializing.

Публикация от @gerber 7 Фев 2018 в 5:53 PST

He definitely has the most charming smile we’ve ever seen!