A little boy suffers from an extremely rare condition which means his body is covered in painful blisters. Geraint Burns, from Neath, South Wales, has such delicate skin that it erupts in agonising blisters if he gets too warm or gets rubbed or knocked, Daily Mail reports.

The 18-month-old baby’s skin is so red and sore that worried strangers will question whether he has been burnt - forcing his mother, Angharard, to hand out leaflets explaining his condition.

Geraint suffers from diffuse cutaneous mastocytosis - a condition where the skin is thickened and easily blistered. People often stare and mistake Geraint’s blistered skin for sunburn - assuming his mother does not properly care for him.

The condition can even cause anaphylactic shock - a severe and potentially life threatening reaction. It is caused by the accumulation of mast cells in the skin. Mast cells contain substances such as histamine that regulate allergic reactions.

With mastocytosis the body produces too many mast cells. Mast cells are found throughout the body in healthy people and have beneficial effects on wound healing and immunity.

Many doctors have never seen a case of mastocytosis especially GP’s and even some specialists might not recognise the condition. Currently there is no cure for mastocytosis however there are options for treating the symptoms of the disease. No one treatment is successful in all children. The cause is unknown and familial cases are rare.