“Little People, Big World” stars Zach and Tori Roloff have revealed their newborn son, Josiah, has achondroplasia.
“He’s Josiah. He has achondroplasia, but he’s not, like, Josiah the achondroplasia,” Zach, 32, told Us Weekly.
“Just like I’m Tori, I have brown hair,” Tori said. “I’m not a brunette. That’s not how I would classify myself.”
“Achondroplasia is a genetic condition affecting a protein in the body called the fibroblast growth factor receptor,” according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
“In achondroplasia, this protein begins to function abnormally, slowing down the growth of bone in the cartilage of the growth plate. This leads to shorter bones, abnormally-shaped bones and shorter stature; adult height in people with achondroplasia is between 42 and 56 inches.”
Zach has achondroplasia, while wife Tori does not. Their two other children, Jackson, 5, and Lilah, 2, also have it. Zach’s parents have it, while Zach’s three siblings do not.
“We try not to make it a big deal, just because we never want our kids to feel like it is a big deal,” Tori said.
“It's not his identity,” Zach said about Josiah having the condition.
“It’s so normal to us, though” Tori said.
“We have so many resources and there’s a lot of parents out there who don’t have the same resources and don’t have the same confidence in everything that Zach and I do,” she added.
“We will definitely be advocates for people with dwarfism because of our kids,” Zach says.
In 2020, Tori announced Lilah has dwarfism when her daughter was about 2 months old and said she found out Jackson had achondroplasia when she was 34 weeks pregnant with him.
Tori revealed on Instagram three weeks ago that they had welcomed Josiah on April 30, which came after they had previously lost a child.
“I feel like miscarriage truly steals your joy,” Roloff, wrote in an Instagram post last December. “This pregnancy, it’s been so difficult to get excited. However, we have seen baby multiple times and we’ve heard his/her heartbeat a ton. And it’s strong.”