31 OUNCE BABY DIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18761, 27 December 1930, Page 13

31 OUNCE BABY DIES

FED WITH WATER ANT) BRANDY FROM FOUNTAIN-PEN FILLER. One of the smallest babies on record, a boy who weighted only 31 ounces, was born in Twickenham Nursing Home, Middlesex (England). It lived for 26 hours, and was fed every half-hour with one drop of brandy diluted with water, administered with a pipettesimilar to a fountain-pen filler. Mrs. Margaret Ellis, the matron of the home, stated: “The baby was the most perfectly formed little fellow I have seen, and a beautiful child, just like a lovely doll. He was the third tiny baby born here during the past two months, and, curiously enough, all the mothers came from St. Margaret’s’ Twickenham. “The first baby, who weighed 21b. 13oz. at birth, lived eight days. The other one, which weighed 31b. at birth, is now seven weeks old, and has put on lib 90z.” The record for the world’s smallest baby at birth is held by Jean Whiteman, of Elstead, Surrey. She is now nearly two years old, but she weighed only 14oz. at birth, and when three weeks old a wedding ring could be passed over her hands and wrists.