Discrete differential equations appear most prominently in planar map and lattice path enumeration. In this work we consider discrete differential equations with an additional parameter $x$, where the order of the equation is $1$ for $x=0$ but $k> 1$ for $x\ne 0$. We call such equations singularly perturbed. The main contribution of this work is to show that there is actually a smooth transition under certain natural assumptions. As an application of this result we consider pattern counts in triangular planar maps and derive a central limit theorem for patterns which cannot self-intersect.