At three months old little Riley Crump is a gurgling bundle of joy. You would never know that this week his parents discovered he is suffering from an extremely rare condition that is the opposite of diabetes.

Ben and Zowie Crump are now waiting to take Riley to see experts at the specialist Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children where he will have more tests on the condition – known as congenital hyperinsulinism.

Riley had to be rushed by ambulance to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital after he suddenly started to go blue and “flopping”.

Tests showed that his blood-sugar levels were just 1.1 when they should have been more than four.

At first doctors were baffled by what was causing the Riley’s problem but then he was diagnosed with congenital hyperinsulinism, a condition in which the pancreas secretes excessive amounts of insulin.

It is believed to affects about only one in 50,000 babies.

Riley’s condition has been stabilised but his parents, of Benbow Quay, Shrewsbury, are unsure at this stage what long-term medication or treatment he will need.

They expect within the month to be called to Great Ormond Street in London for scans on Riley’s pancreas and blood tests so that the underlying cause of the problem can be found.

Zowie, 27, said that on Monday last week, Riley’s eyes had begun flickering and there had been a “twitching” of his hands and feet.

This passed very quickly. Riley seemed to be perfectly fine and they were assured by a health visitor that there was no serious problem.

But on Thursday last week things took a terrifying turn for the worse.

“He was as happy as could be and smiling his head off but then he had hiccups and then I noticed that there was no chest movement,” said Zowie.

“He was going blue, the twitching was more severe, his eyes were rolling and he was flopping.

“I phoned the ambulance straight away. It was frightening.”

Ben said that Riley had 64 heel pricks at the Royal Shrewsbury as tests were taken and five times a tube had been inserted, but he had continued to smile through it all.

At present he is having two lots of medication – one to reduce insulin production and the other to offset the water retention which results from this particular treatment.

Ben and Zowie said they wanted to thank staff at the Royal Shrewsbury, who had been “absolutely amazing”.