LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — According to the National Institutes of Health, glucose galactos malabsorbtion is a rare condition with only a few hundred cases being identified around the world. But one person with the condition is six-month-old Addison Umbaugh, who lives in Lake Huntington.

Addison’s father, Larry, said that Addison’s body can’t process sugar, and just about everything we eat somehow breaks down into sugar. So now Addison is on a diet of an expensive special formula that can only be purchased from the manufacturer and must be mixed with fructose, which is the one form of sugar that Addison’s body can tolerate.

Before the condition was correctly diagnosed, Larry and his wife Shannon took their baby to a hospital in Pennsylvania. The medical providers there said the problem was his formula, which was changed several times. They were also told they were feeding their son too much formula. But, said Larry, “we knew in our guts that something wasn’t right.”

So they took him to the Galisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester, where he was admitted right away and spent a month at the facility.

According to the practitioners at Galisano, if the couple had followed the advice of the hospital in Pennsylvania, Addison might not be here today, because his condition was very serious.

Addison’s health has improved, and his parents and medical providers are in the process of attempting to move him to solid food.

To help pay for Addison’s special dietary and other medical needs, the Lake Huntington Volunteer Fire Department is holding a benefit spaghetti dinner to benefit Addison on October 4, at the Lake Huntington fire hall from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.