In an extremely rare case, a woman in India has given birth to a baby boy with tight, waxy shiny skin resembling plastic.

Anita Devi, 23, and Alakhram Yadav, 25, from Binhoni Kalan village in Balrampur in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, were blessed with their first baby on Thursday.

The couple were happy their son was born through a normal delivery at home but this didn’t last for more than two hours after they noticed the child’s unusual skin.

Yadav immediately rushed his son, who is yet to be named, to a local community centre where doctors told him to take him to an advanced medical centre as his condition was critical, reports the Story Trender.

Yadav’s son was finally referred to a private hospital in Lucknow, over 100 miles from his hometown, where doctors admitted him and offered free treatment.

There he was diagnosed with a condition called collodion membrane, where babies are born with tight, waxy, shiny skin resembling plastic.

The condition, according to doctors, is caused by a rare inherited genetic disorder called Lamellar Ichthyosis that affects one in six lakh people.

 Yadav, who works as a farmer, said: ‘Within couple of hours after the delivery we found the baby was different from normal babies. His skin was waxy and shiny, resembling plastic.

‘Also, he was having breathing problems as well.

‘Doctors at the health centre asked me to immediately take the baby to an advanced medical centre as his condition was critical.

‘Within six hours hours, I visited at least three hospitals with my baby as doctors kept me referring to other hospitals saying they can’t help him as he was a rare case.’

Dr Shishir Agarwal, a child specialist at Mahesh Children’s Poly Clinic in Lucknow, said: ‘The baby has tight, waxy, shiny skin resembling plastic, a condition called collodion membrane.

‘The baby has been kept on life support system. He is improving now and his survival chances are quite good.’

‘The condition is extremely rare. In my nine years of medical career, this is the first case of collodion baby I’ve come across.

‘This is a permanent skin condition which is very painful. Parents of such babies need to be very careful as they are very prone to infections and to diseases particularly to water and airborne diseases.’