Smallest baby who weighed the same as a coke can

Britain’s smallest surviving baby boy who weighed the same as a Coke can has survived against the odds. Theo Taylor was smaller than expected at a 19-week scan then stopped growing altogether and his parents were told to fear the worst. He tipped the scales at just 12 ounce when he was born at 26 weeks and five days. After being delivered by emergency C-section on March 15, he was smaller than his father’s hand.

His mother had been offered a termination the day before he was born because of his minuscule size. Parents Katie Rhodes, 24, and Jay, 27, only got to touch his hand for a few seconds before he was whisked away to be put on a breathing machine. Doctors warned that he might not survive long enough to go home.

But little Theo battled on against the odds and was moved to a lower dependency ward at Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne seven weeks later. He was finally allowed to go home on July 7 - weighing 7lb 4oz - after an operation to repair a hernia. Theo is now nearly six months old and is believed to be the smallest newborn to survive in the UK since Aaliyah Hart, now 15, was born at 12 ounce in May 2003.