Reality TV Star Anna Duggar Opens Up About Baby Mason's Health Problems

Anna Duggar, who starred in 19 Kids and Counting with husband Josh Duggar, just revealed to her 741,000 Instagram followers that her baby boy, Mason, has some health issues.

In an Instagram post, Anna shared a video of Mason in his high chair with a cut-up pancake in front of him. In the clip, he slowly tries out his new meal, while his mom encourages him to eat from behind the camera. "Pancakes for a Saturday brunch may seem ordinary, but today at our house it is a big deal!" Anna wrote in the post's caption. "It is Mason's first time to have (dairy-free) pancakes!"

Anna explained that, as some of her longtime followers may have guessed, Mason has a "milk protein (aka dairy) allergy." She shared that his allergies first appeared when he was two weeks old, and it caused Anna to have to rethink her own eating habits. She noted that Mason started drinking formula and she "cut dairy and other potential allergy causing foods out of [her] diet," including gluten, corn, nuts, and nightshade foods, as well as soy, eggs, and chicken. And, as Anna slowly started adding her food back into her own diet, they were able to determine that baby Mason was allergic to dairy.

Anna told her followers that it didn't take long for Mason, who was born in September 2017, to get back to nursing, as she wrote, "By January he was back to 100% nursing and thriving — reaching 20lbs at 6 months!" And, by the looks of it, Mason seems to be doing well.

Continuing on with her lengthy Instagram caption, Anna likened her stressful experience with figuring out Mason's allergy to climbing a mountain. "Sometimes in life we are faced with a mountain that seems impossible. We pray asking God to move the mountain, yet God wants us to climb it!" she wrote. "Even though it is unexpected (and hard work) it is so worth it, God's grace is sufficient for each step of the way!" 

She added, "To have a mountain top experience you must first climb the mountain!"

Anna certainly knows a thing or two about overcoming obstacles, as she was involved in a major tabloid scandal not that long ago. As The Washington Post previously reported in June 2015, Anna's husband, Josh, had "improperly touched" four of his sisters and a babysitter. Then, in August of that same year, Josh admitted to cheating on his wife (possibly multiple times, considering his Ashley Madison subscriptions) and being addicted to pornography (via People).

Still, Anna has somehow managed to maintain a positive outlook when it comes to her personal life and her family — or, at least, she puts on a good face for the public. In July 2018, she shared that she and Josh had celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary in June, writing, "The past 10 years have been a wonderful adventure."

We're not so sure we'd have called what she went through an "adventure," but we guess she prefers to look on the bright side of things.

Since Josh's scandals, both he and Anna have largely remained out of the spotlight, as their family's reality TV series 19 and Counting was canceled by TLC. And, despite the show getting a spinoff called Counting On, Josh and Anna have not participated in the program.

Though many fans understandably don't want Josh to have any part of Counting On, others apparently wouldn't mind seeing him and his family on the series, if just to show how people can be forgiven for their actions. "I'm still so upset that they can't feature Josh," one commenter wrote beneath a photo of Josh and Anna's daughter Meredith in 2017 (via CafeMom). "How do they get to be a testimony of God's redemptive power if they can't show the healing?"

Another wrote, "Bring back Josh! He is part of the family who has forgiven him and moved on!"

We're not so sure TLC will ask Josh to make an appearance on Counting On anytime soon, but who knows what the future holds for his kids? Baby Mason and his siblings could just show up in a scene one of these days.