January 2026: Children’s Hospital Admission

Emma came into this world a happy, healthy, and chunky baby in November of 2025. I vividly remember her pediatrician saying, “She’s perfect!” at her one-month appointment. Then, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my husband, Pug, and I started noticing that she wasn’t moving her arms and legs as much, and she still couldn’t hold her head up. I began comparing pictures and videos of Emma to our son, Eli, at the same age—and that’s when alarms started going off in my head. Something was wrong.

We took Emma to her pediatrician on January 6th with these concerns, and we were sent straight to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. We have been here for about a week, during which Emma has undergone a massive workup involving neurology, genetics, and infectious disease. She had a brain MRI, spine MRI, lumbar puncture, and dozens of labs—all of which came back relatively normal.

There was some initial concern for Guillain-Barré Syndrome, and she was treated with four days of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) infusions. Further testing later ruled this out. The doctors are continuing to evaluate her with a wide lens, as she does not perfectly fit any single diagnosis.

There has been some discussion of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), as she shows some clinical signs, but she does not present like a “classic” SMA baby with severe feeding or respiratory distress. After ruling out many other conditions, all signs are pointing toward something genetic, such as a muscular myopathy or neuropathy. Since Emma is stable, her doctors are comfortable discharging us to go home and wait for the results.