Theo Taylor was smaller than expected at a 19-week scan, then stopped growing altogether and his parents were told to prepare for the worst.

He tipped the scales at just 12oz when he was born at 26 weeks and five days.

After being delivered by emergency C-section on March 15, he was smaller than his father’s hand.

His mother had been offered a termination the day before he was born because of his minuscule size.

Parents Katie Rhodes and Jay only got to touch his hand for a few seconds before he was whisked away to be placed on a breathing machine.

Doctors warned that he might not survive long enough to go home.

But little Theo kept fighting against the odds and was moved to a lower-dependency ward at Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne seven weeks later.

He was finally allowed to go home on July 7 — weighing 7lb 4oz — after an operation to repair a hernia.

Theo is now nearly six months old and is believed to be the smallest newborn to survive in the UK since Aaliyah Hart, now 15, was born at 12oz in May.

‘It’s amazing to think he was the smallest baby ever as he is now so much bigger and doing so well,’ said support worker Katie, from Durham.

Theo still receives doses of nasal oxygen, but doctors don’t think he will suffer any further complications.

Jay, a delivery driver, said he was the most frightened he has ever been when he saw how tiny his son was.

‘I had never ever seen a baby that small – I didn’t know babies could be that small,’ he said.

‘The doctor said he was about the weight of a can of Coke, but even when I picked up a can, it felt heavier than Theo.

‘But he is proving everyone wrong. The doctors that first looked after him came in over the weeks to see him and could not believe how well he was doing.’

Theo’s family is raising money for Tiny Lives, a charity that helps care for premature babies and their families.