BABY WAS NOT FED PROPERLY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18468, 21 May 1928, Page 5

BABY WAS NOT FED PROPERLY.

CORONER CRITICISES PARENTS’ FAILURE TO CALL NURSE. (Special to the “Star.’) TIMARU, May 21. The story of how a baby was starved to death through ignorance on the part of the parents was revealed at an inquest concerning the death of a fourweeks’ old boy. Clarence Tomlinson, which was conducted at Timaru by Mr C. R. Orr-Walker this morning. The child died in the Timaru Hospital on Friday night. The Coroner s verdict was that death was caused by exhaustion as the .result of insufficient nourishment and improper diet. Commenting on the verdict, Mr W allcer said : "Th# evidence shows lamentable ignorance on the part of the grandmother and mother of the child in regard to the feeding of the child. Xt ai«r> shows reprehensible conduct on the part of the relatives in not calling in a doctor or a Plunket nurse sooner, and when the grandmother knew that a Plunket nurse was at all time available free of charge, it is incomprehensible that she did not call one in.”

Dr F. F. A. Ulrich stated that he had conducted a post mortem examination of the body, and in his opinion death was due to insufficient nourishment and the improper nourishment that was supplied. Minute haemorrhages were scattered all over the body, indicating poisoning from improper food. He had visited the ’ child on May 18, and at the time concluded that the child had been improperly fed. Clarence Tomlinson, father of the child, said /that the baby was born on April 23. Witness’s mother-in-law had attended his wife during the confinement. There was no doctor present. The child was ill only for a couple of days. A doctor was called in for the first time last Friday morning. The child did not appear to be very ill. Witness thought it was only a cold. He knew that the district nurse was available free of cl\arge. Martha Honeyman said she had attended her daughter at the birth of the baby. She was not a registered midwife. The baby was a full-time child, and seemed healthy, but was very thin, weighing four pounds. Witness remained for a fortnight with her daughter.' The child was not breastfed. The food consisted of cow’s milk and water, one dessertspoonful of milk to three of water, every three hours. The child filled out until last Thursday, when he seemed to catch a slight cold. Witness rubbed him with camphorated oil for this. W itness knew there was a Plunket nurse who could be called. She suggested at the beginning of last week that the mother should call in a nurse. The mother had replied that she was going for a few days’ holiday, and would call the nurse when she came back. The. Coroner: It is incomprehensible to me that a doctor should not have been called in, especially in a town of the size of Timaru, where doctors and a Plunket nurse are readily available. . Witness: There was no one in the house whom I could send for a doctor. Maud Tomlinson, mother of the child, said that she made no arrangements for a doctor or a nurse. She depended on her mother. On Friday, when the child took ill, a doctor had been summoned immediately. To the Coroner: I know a Plunket nurse was available free. My rnother suggested that I should call in the Plunket nurse, but I had heard that Plunket food did no good. Dr Ulrich, recalled, deposed that starvation was coming on so gradually that the parents and grandmother did not notice it. The amount of one dessertspoonful of milk to three of water was not enough. The child did not seem to have had even that amount. Mrs Tomlinson, on being recalled, said that she really trusted to her mother to feed the child except at the one feed at seven o’clock in the morning. Mrs Honeyman, recalled, said that she put some barley water in the food once or twice last week. The Coroner then gave his verdict as stated.