The latest episode of Little People, Big World included the moment Zach Roloff told his father Matt Roloff that his third child with his wife Tori Roloff will also have achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. The scene was filmed before Zach and Tori‘s son Josiah Luke was born on April 30. The couple is also parents to Jackson Kyle, 5, and Lilah Ray, 2, both of whom have achondroplasia just like their father.
“We got a third dwarf baby on the way,” Zach told his father while playing outside with his two children in the scene published by PEOPLE before it aired. Matt asked if this was confirmed, and Zach said it was. “You’re at the timing you can tell that?” Matt asked. “Oh yeah. Big head, short limbs. Just the face, the nose,” Zach explained.
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“Zach told me that they were having an LP [Little Person] baby,” Matt later said in a confessional. “I knew that that was a 50/50 [chance] at minimum, it didn’t surprise me one bit,” Matt said, adding that the family just wanted another healthy baby. “Either way, they’re going to fit right into the family,” he said.
In an earlier episode this season, Tori, who is of average height, admitted it “would be fun to have an average height baby.” Zach also told the camera it “would be different” to have a child born without achondroplasia. “I would imagine having all dwarf siblings just kinda like, ‘Hey we’re a pack and that’s the outside world,’” he said. “But when you have an average height sibling, [you’re like] I wish I was more like my sibling. It changes the dynamic a little bit.”
Josiah was born on April 30, about two weeks early, Tori shared on Instagram. He weighed 7 lbs, 6 oz, and measured 19.5 inches long. Josiah is a rainbow baby, coming after Tori suffered a miscarriage in March 2021. In a June 30 update, Tori said Josiah now weighs almost 12 pounds. “Josiah is proving to be one easy-going kid and we all love him so much,” Tori wrote at the time. “Both Jackson and Lilah are so obsessed with helping him and I have loved watching the three of them interact!”
In May, Zach and Tori told Us Weekly that Josiah has achondroplasia and they did not want to let that define him. “He’s Josiah. He has achondroplasia, but he’s not, like, Josiah the achondroplasia,” Zach told the magazine. Tori went on to acknowledge how lucky they are to have a support system for their children.
“It’s so normal to us,” Tori said. “We have so many resources and there’s a lot of parents out there who don’t have the same resources and… don’t have the same confidence in everything that Zach and I do.” LPBW airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.
