‘Little People, Big World’: Tori Roloff Breaks Down Over Baby Lilah’s Health Scare

Tori Roloff had to follow her mommy instincts during Tuesday’s episode of Little People, Big World, when she sensed something more than just a bug was affecting baby Lilah. The TLC star welcomed Lilah with husband Zachary in November 2019, giving 3-year-old son Jackson a little sister. But the baby days aren’t all just cuddles and cooing, especially when it comes to having a child with dwarfism.

“The last couple of days Lilah hasn’t been feeling well,” Tori said in Tuesday’s episode, “She’s been throwing up a lot and just seems to be in pain.” With mother-in-law Amy Roloff coming over to watch Jackson while the two make an emergency trip to the doctor, Tori broke down when discussing her concerns with her daughter’s health, “She threw up three times yesterday … she has something. …With her, I don’t look at her and say she’s fine. There’s something there that’s just not adding up for me.”

Zach and Tori are more concerned about Lilah’s health because of Zach’s childhood health issues, which are common for children with the kind of dwarfism he and his children all have. Zach was feeling calmer about the possibility of complications, however, telling the camera, “I’ve dealt with a lot more medical issues growing up, and so I think when these situations come up, I’m able to be more calm about it and Tori maybe doesn’t have that experience.”

Tori admits raising two kids with dwarfism has made her hypervigilant. “Raising two kids with dwarfism, you always have this background of what could be wrong and I am a little more hypersensitive when it comes to making sure my kids have proper medical care,” she explained. “When you throw dwarfism in it, it’s like is it hydrocephalus? There’s so many other things that come into play.”

Zach suffered from hydrocephalus as a child, which is “when the water from your brain is not being properly drained,” and can cause big concerns when it comes to pressure being put on the brain. That would be Tori’s biggest fear, as she noted her little girl “seems like she’s in pain.” But despite being hypersensitive to her kids’ health, Tori was confident she was right to seek help immediately. “There’s like a thing in a mom’s head where you just worry all the time, but there’s a difference between worry and knowing … like if an infant throws up three times a day, that’s not normal,” she said.

At the doctor’s office, Tori pushed for Lilah’s mucus to be tested after it was initially written off as a common bug, which turned out to be the right choice when the tests came back positive for RSV and Influenza A, which both needed to be treated and monitored closely, the doctor said.