{"id":178812,"date":"2018-02-07T11:23:58","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T16:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=178812"},"modified":"2018-02-07T11:28:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T16:28:07","slug":"lucas-gerber-down-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/lucas-gerber-down-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Lucas, the first Gerber baby with Down syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lucas Warren, an adorable baby with Down syndrome, has been selected as the newest\u00a0Gerber Spokesbaby<\/a>. The announcement<\/a> came this morning on the TODAY Show and, according to the NBC show, “The 1-year-old from Dalton, Georgia, is the first child with\u00a0Down syndrome<\/a>\u00a0to be named a\u00a0Gerber baby<\/a>\u00a0since the contest’s start more than ninety years ago.”<\/p>\n

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Lucas Warren, Gerber Spokesbaby<\/p><\/div>\n

The iconic charcoal-sketched logo on Gerber\u2019s packaging was originally a sketch of Ann Turner Cook at four months old. She became a Gerber baby in 1928, according to Inside Edition<\/a>, and in 2016, Cook turned 90 years old. According to the baby food company<\/a>, for the past several years, Gerber has held the annual photo contest where a panel of judges review entries to find, “children from birth to preschool age whose photos displayed expressiveness and consistency with Gerber\u2019s heritage. Since the inception of Photo Search seven years ago, Gerber has awarded eight (twins in 2013) tiny tots the Photo Search crown.”<\/p>\n

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Original Gerber, Baby Ann Turner Cook<\/p><\/div>\n

This year’s winning photo was submitted by the infant’s mother, Cortney Warren, who, according to the TODAY Show, “entered the Gerber contest on a whim, after a relative pointed out an ad seeking submissions. After posting a photo of Lucas on Instagram using the contest’s hashtag, Cortney and her husband, Jason, received the news that their son had been chosen from more than 140,000 entries to be the 2018 Gerber Spokesbaby.”<\/p>\n

“He’s always been such a good baby. I’ve never met anyone to come into contact with Lucas and not smile,” Lucas’ proud mother said<\/a>, “We didn’t actually find out he had Down syndrome until he was born…It’s never once changed how we felt about him, he was always our son.”<\/p>\n

“He may have Down syndrome, but he’s always Lucas first,” Cortney added. “He’s got an awesome personality and he goes through the milestones of every child… we’re hoping when he grows up and looks back on this, he’ll be proud of himself and not ashamed of his disability.”<\/p>\n

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Lucas Warren, Gerber Spokesbaby<\/p><\/div>\n

It was Lucas’ joy and his smile that convinced his parents to submit his photo.\u00a0“I finally just decided to do it on a whim. I thought he was adorable and I felt well, maybe the world might,” Courtney said.<\/p>\n