[bhoneycutt]

I'm sure most all of us here are smart enough to know better but I just came across a story of a mom who was trying to stretch a dollar and was seriously diluting her baby's formula. She would only add two scoops to 10 oz. of water, when she should have been adding FIVE scoops. That poor baby was 5 months old and only weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. when he should have weighed more like 12 lbs, the article said. Heck! My 6 week old weighs 12 lbs.! Of course, she weighed a very healthy 10 lbs. 1 oz. when she was born.

Here's the link to the story:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/health/to...la-Danger.html

[QueenAngie]

Very sad!

Let's hope that people in financial despair will get help
at the local church,
or WIC
or a similar agency.

[JeanLynn81]

When I was on WIC, they did always give Alyssa enough formula to last the month. When she hit growth spurts, she wanted more...but by ped's standards...WIC gives a proper amount.

If she was giving her child all the formula, but just watering it down, then isn't the infant's problem something similar to water poisoning? And would the excess water flush the nutrients out of his system faster?

Sorry, I can be a dumb dumb sometimes....but it confuses me when the story says she was giving him formula from WIC. Made me do a double take. Because really it is enough, even if its bare minumum.

[erinellakal]

That is soo sad!

My experience with WIC is that they DON'T give enough formula to get thru the month. I always had to buy extra cans to get thru until the next checks were good. But diluting the formula never entered my mind!

Hopefully people can learn from this sad story.

[wanttobemommy]

ok so here is where i have to confess that we diluted Jaxons formula at the ped's request. Because of Jaxons reflux he said to give him three scoops of formula for a 9 oz bottle. The reason for this he was still getting sick from the nutramigen so he said to weaken the strength of the formula and Jax was able to keep it down but he was gaining weight appropriatly and he was also getting rice cereal in his bottle as well. So maybe because of the rice cereal it was ok.

[twinzplus3]

Um yeah. . .the rice cereal adds substantial calories. Your situation is different bc a) the ped is directing you to dillute your formula. . .that also means the ped is aware, and is watching his weight gain plus there's cereal in it and b) this is a case of the "less of two evils." While one could argue that you should never dillute formula, one could also easily argue that if it doesn't stay down at all it's not really doing the baby any good. You're okay.

[MissyChrissy]

How tragic.

[wanna be a young mother]

I wonder why her WIC wasn't enough. My friend is on WIC and she has extra cans most months. I have another friend that just makes it every month but I've never heard of WIC being THAT short on formula! Maybe a can or two but she makes it sound like 3 or 4 cans short. Nevy would eat about a 1-2 cans a week. WIC gives 6-8 cans a month depending on how much the child should be eating. I could se her watering down one or two bottles a day but not EVERY single bottle. I find something "off" about her story.

[Samual]

So she has an 18 month child that she chose not to feed correctly and she has a baby she chose not to feed correctly, she clearly couldn't afford the first child, yet chose to bring another child into the home which again could not be afforded, so was started. Yet she can afford to go to college and the babies father doesn't even see the need to work, wow, model parents we have here.
Someone clearly hasn't heard of something called money, you can exchange for wonderful things, like baby formula. Franks had numerous cases like this, all removed from parents, yet it seems this baby will be left with them, scary thought.

[DivasMomma]

With Jae I had TONS of extra cans of formula after each month on WIC...but i think because I was ahead to begin with (for her first xmas my mom bought us a HUGE can of it)

With Kaydee it wasnt even close to enough. I was buying at least 2-3 cans extra at the end of the month....


who knows why lol