A baby born deaf miraculously began hearing when his mum opened a bag of CRISPS over him while he slept.
The sound of the bag popping open awoke Liam Champken, who was 14 months old, and mum Jennie is convinced it was the moment could finally hear.
Liam, now 10, was born eight weeks early weighing only 3lb 3oz, and doctors said he could not hear because his cochlea was irreparably damaged.
He also suffered from bronchiolitis, which caused him general breathing difficulties up to the age of two.
Jennie, a support worker from Twyning, Glos, recalled the moment he was able to hear.
“I opened a bag of crisps and he woke up,” she said.
“I said to the doctor that I thought he could hear, but she said Liam would have smelled them because the sense of smell can be heightened if there are hearing problems.
“Two months later he had a test and it said his hearing was back.”
It was not the first time experts got it wrong about Liam, whose mother Jennie was told to expect a baby girl at her 20-week ultrasound scan.
On the day she gave birth, Jennie woke up wracked with pain and headed to Cheltenham General Hospital for a check-up.
She said: “I almost got to the M50 and realised I couldn’t carry on.”
“I then drove back to the house and got my husband to take me.
“On that day, the hospital delivered two or three premature babies, so it was absolute carnage.
“They gave me drugs to stop him coming, but within an hour he was born.”
