The parents of a baby who may never be able to eat after he was born without a digestive system fear he will not have a home to go to when he is finally released from hospital.

Leah Snell, 18, and Charlie Custons-Reynolds, 19, are on the council's waiting list, but are concerned baby Lenny will be discharged before a suitable home is found.

The poorly tot, who was born with part of his bowel outside his body, is fed through a tube into a central line in his chest.

This makes the four-month-old particularly vulnerable to germs, and he has already fought off a potentially deadly MRSA infection once.

But the family, from Boughton-under-Blean near Faversham, have been told they may have to be placed in shared accommodation when he is well enough to take home, putting Lenny at further risk of infection.

Lenny was born by emergency c-section with a small hole in his abdominal wall, next to his belly button.

The rare condition, known as gastroschisis, needed urgent treatment and Lenny was taken from his mother and transferred to St Thomas’ Hospital within hours of his birth.

“When they got there, the small part of his bowel that was on the outside of his body had actually fallen off," Leah explained.

“When they opened his stomach up they found that his bowel had twisted up and died while I was pregnant so he hasn’t got any of his bowel.”

Leah says his vulnerability to infection makes it even harder to find somewhere suitable to live after they leave the hospital.

Lenny will need his own room to house the machines that keep him alive, a special fridge to store his liquid feeds and a sterile environment that keeps him safe from contamination.

Swale Borough Council says the family are in the highest priority banding for a home, and it hopes putting them into shared accommodation as a "last resort" will not be necessary.

However, the family says the prospect of shared accommodation is adding to their anxiety.

Leah, who is waiting to be trained to provide her son’s feeds, says of the council’s housing solution: “It is not OK to do that with Lenny. We are not going to be going into shared accommodation. He needs his own space and it’s just not suitable.

“We need to get somewhere soon really because by the time he gets ready to come out we need to have the house ready and I’m really worried.

“I don’t want him to have to stay in hospital longer because we haven’t got somewhere. That’s been one of my big worries at the moment.”

Lenny has recently been allowed to have milk for the first time, but he can only have one teaspoon every four hours.

Leah fears for her son's future, and says she does not know if he will ever be able to attend school due to the risk of infection.

“It’s just thinking about what Lenny’s life will be like," she said. "I've thought about Christmas, with it coming up.

“Christmas is normally like ‘oh let’s have a big Christmas dinner’ and with his birthday, a birthday cake.

“It’s not going to be a birthday cake that he gets or a Christmas dinner. We’re going to have to adapt to things and change everything."

Leah and Charlie’s families have been doing their best to support them, with Leah’s aunt setting up a GoFundMe page to help them cover the costs of staying at the hospital and all the specialist equipment Lenny will need.

Charlie, who stays with his parents during the week, has returned to work as a labourer but has already been forced to leave a job after needing to take time off to visit Leah and Lenny.

Leah says: “I’ve cleared all my savings out. It’s been crazy the last few months. It’s been really hard actually.

"The hospital is pretty good, they help with a few things. They give me food vouchers but I've made myself a bit ill just eating hospital food for the last few months.

“It’s been really hard with money, although we haven’t had to be paying for somewhere to stay because Ronald McDonald House have given us a place to stay. We couldn’t have done it without that.”

For Lenny’s parents, the past four months have been very long and they have found his unusual arrival into the world very challenging.

Charlie, who is a first-time father, says the time at the hospital has been a "rollercoaster".

"It’s been stressful," he said. "The not knowing part of it, the what’s going to be round the next corner, what’s going to happen next.

“I’d never put it on anyone. No matter who they are, I’d never put it on anyone whatsoever because it’s not nice. You’ll never feel emotion like it, I think it’s one of the most difficult times ever.”

Leah added: “It’s been quite lonely. I’ve been here quite a lot on my own.

“There’s a lot of poorly children here and it’s really really sad and obviously Lenny is one of them. It’s hard to try and block it all out.

“I’ve had a lot of thinking time as well and it takes a toll on your mental health. I can’t focus on anything other than making sure that Lenny’s all right.”

Swale Borough Council says housing the family is a high priority.

“We’re working with the family in this case, and they have been given the highest banding for the housing register to help them find long-term accommodation," a spokesman said.

"As there is not a need for an adapted property at this time, we hope this will be found relatively quickly but there is no way of knowing how long this might take.

“We are also liaising with the hospital to make sure we are involved in preparing an appropriate discharge plan if required.

"Shared accommodation can be a last resort when someone needs emergency temporary accommodation, but we don’t consider this to be appropriate in this case.

"We’re working closely with the hospital to make sure this won’t be necessary.”