Ottawa

Wyatt Scott, baby with rare congenital trismus, can't open his mouth

Wyatt Scott is nine months old and can't open his mouth due to a rare condition. Now the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario is trying to learn more because it hasn't found a case study to help guide them on how to treat the baby.

Parents of Ottawa's Wyatt Scott set up What's Wrong with Wyatt website to look for help

Baby's mouth won't open due to rare condition

9 years ago
Duration 2:23
Wyatt Scott has congenital trismus, a rare disorder that won't let him open his mouth.

A nine-month-old baby in Ottawa is unable to open his mouth due to a rare condition and doctors don’t have any case history to help treat him.

Wyatt Scott has congenital trismus, an extremely rare disorder that prevents the young boy from opening his jaw.

Doctors at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) said the condition has its ripple effects that kept Wyatt there for nearly the first three months of his life and have sent him back for many emergency room visits.

"It can cause issues of getting food in with any nipple or bottle feeding and it can also have trouble for the secretions, so they often have associated swallowing difficulties," said Dr. Jean-Philippe Vaccani.

"He's already had an episode where we had to perform CPR on him — it was from vomiting," said his mother, Amy Miville.

"He started to cry, and then he started to choke and then he lost consciousness, so it's very dangerous."

Hospital has no case history

Wyatt's parents said their son's condition is so rare that CHEO has no case study to look at to help determine a treatment.

Nine-month-old Wyatt's parents, Amy Miville and Andrew Scott, say their son spent most of his first three months at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. (CBC)
​"Nobody can tell us if Wyatt is going to be better in two years, five years, 10 years or if he will be eating from a tube the rest of his life," Miville said.

His parents have launched a website, "What's Wrong with Wyatt," with the hope that other parents of children with congenital trismus, or doctors, will reach out.

"He's so normal in every other way," Miville said.

"I want him to have the benefits that my other children have."

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