Isa Slish is famous for being the 2022 Gerber baby.
But her parents were used to people staring and asking questions, even before she was chosen for the iconic role.
Isa is the first Gerber baby with a limb difference: She was born without her right femur and fibula. Now the 19-month-old is learning to walk with her new prosthetic leg.
Her parents, John and Meredith Slish of Edmond, Oklahoma, say they always try to assume good intentions.
“For both kids and adults, we want to foster curiosity and never take offense but really provide education in the moment using correct terminology,” says Meredith. “We use it as an opportunity to ask if people have more questions.”
Some typical questions the family hears: “Why doesn’t she have a foot?”; “Can she still do things?”; “Will that happen to me, too?”; and “Does it hurt?”
And, they say, they hear a common refrain: “She looks different than me!”
The Slishes say they usually respond with something like, “You are right, Isa’s leg looks different than yours. She was born with one leg that looks different from the other leg,” or, “Yes, there are differences. Can you describe the difference you see? Now can you see the similarities?”
They also reassure kids by saying, “Isa can do most of the things you can do! Sometimes she needs to do things differently, but she can do all sorts of things just like you.”
John and Meredith Slish learned about Isa's limb difference, the result of congenital conditions called proximal femoral focal deficiency and fibular hemimelia, at a 20-week pregnancy scan.
"When you get any sort of unexpected news about the development of your baby, it’s definitely frightening," Meredith tells TODAY.com. "There's a lot of unknowns and we had a whole lot of questions."
Last year, during April’s Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month, John and Meredith applied to Gerber’s 2022 Photo Search Contest.
“We hoped someone would see Isa’s spirit and her beautiful smile and eyes,” says Meredith. “Isa’s limb difference is just one part of her.”
Gerber agreed. In May 2022, Isa was declared the winner of the 2022 contest — and the first Gerber baby to have a limb difference.
Isa was crowned on TODAY alongside John and Meredith.
As the Gerber "spokesbaby" and “chief growing officer,” Isa has served as an official taste tester for new baby food products. She was also compensated with $25,000, which the Slishes set aside for her medical care.
Doctors were confident that Isa would have a healthy life regardless of her limb difference. “Being born (this way) won’t impact her growth or development,” says John.
Last month, Isa was fitted with a prosthetic leg and she's already taken her first steps with assistance. The family says Isa will attend weekly physical therapy sessions to help her gain strength and confidence.
Isa is growing into an "outgoing" little girl, her parents say.
"She'll talk to anything or anybody," says John. "I’ll take Isa on walks and she’ll point out all the leaves, trees, and birds and waves at every car that goes by."
"In this past week, she’s learned the words 'toes,' 'hand,' 'knee,' 'dog,' 'cat,' 'mama,' 'dada' and 'diaper,'" says Meredith.
The parents have explained Isa's limb difference to her 5-year-old sister, Tempe, with an example from her favorite film series, "How to Train Your Dragon," in which a character is missing part of his leg.
"We used that as a teaching tool to explain what Isa’s leg would look like," says John.
Tempe also reads books that celebrate characters with limb differences, which she’ll pass down to Isa when she’s older.
Tempe loves to tell people about her sister, her parents say.
“We’ll be paying in the grocery store," says John, "and Tempe will say, ‘My name is Tempe and this is my sister Isa, the Gerber baby.'"
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