Furious Mom Lashes Out At Facebook After Photo Of Her Toddler Is Banned

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A furious mother has lashed out at Facebook after the social media giant banned a photo of her one-year-old daughter – who suffers from a rare condition that causes her to break out in blisters at the slightest touch.

Rhiannon Atkinson posted pictures of Pippa’s feet to raise awareness of epidermolysis bullosa (EB) – which strikes about 1 in 50,000 people.

However, she claims that the social media channel sent her a message branding one image of her daughter, who is left in unbearable pain due to the condition, ‘undesirable’.

Facebook said to Atkinson that such pictures are banned because they make users ‘feel bad about themselves’.

The image is of the little girls foot reveals the severity of her condition – around 90 percent of her hands and feet are without skin and red raw. Atkinson previously spoke about how she has to restrain Pippa when she dresses her in bandages to stop her catching any deadly infections. The mother finds it upsetting as it goes against her motherly ‘instinct’.

Atkinson, from Cwmbran, South Wales, said: ‘I went back to them [Facebook] to say that’s ludicrous and that we were trying to highlight my daughter’s condition.Even after they reviewed it they were still not willing to change their minds.People have told us the images make them feel sick – that’s fine some people have nothing better to do than pick on a baby. But for a huge corporation to say that – that stunned me.’

Facebook said that the image Atkinson was trying to use ‘depicts a body or body parts in an undesirable manner’. It also stated that adverts should not depict certain body weights as being ‘perfect’, or any health conditions as being ‘extremely undesirable’.

It also used examples like ‘close-ups of “muffin tops”, where the overhanging fat is visible’, people with tight clothes and conditions painted ‘in a negative light’.

It also said ‘adverts like these are not allowed since they make viewers feel bad about themselves’.

Pippa gets 50-60 blisters a day and she has to have nappies lined to stop them rubbing and numerous different creams applied in an attempt to reduce friction.  As the toddler grows and develops the urges to crawl and walk, her hands, knees, and feet constantly have to be bandaged, Atkinson said.

Pippa also has to take morphine and paracetamol to cope with the pain while some days she needs sedatives to relieve her. Her nurse and carer rolled into one – Atkinson said: ‘I am Pippa’s nurse and carer all rolled into one. In some ways when I am dressing her she must hate me because I am causing her so much pain.  But on the other hand, if she’s upset, I’m the person she looks for.I dread the day when she can tell me to stop doing something because you always have to get her dressings finished.’

Atkinson also said: ‘As soon as she was born her hands and feet looked as though someone had taken her and dipped her in boiling water. They were red raw and she was whisked off to intensive care.Being told your child has an incurable condition is incomprehensible, it broke my heart. But then not being able to touch her, or cuddle her for five months was torture. I’d never known anyone with this condition so it was a complete shock when we were told it was going to get worse.’