Three Stories About How Salt Can Kill Children

Yes!

Believe it or not there are parents who have used salt to kill their children. Then there are those who did not know that feeding infants adult food could kill them because adult food has more salt than infant food.

Let's look at three stories about children that were killed by salt poisoning.

DO NOT FEED BABIES ADULT FOOD

Parents of a three-month-old baby who suffered fatal brain damage from a salt overdose have warned others not to feed their infants adult food.

Leroy Elders was given adult food instead of specially prepared baby meals because it was cheaper and his parents thought the ingredients were the same. Leroy's parents fed him a porridge cereal, and say many of their friends feed their baby in a similar fashion. But salt in the food, which included breakfast cereal and mashed potatoes and gravy, overwhelmed the child's delicate digestive system and caused massive brain damage.

Doctors spent five days trying to save Leroy after he began suffering fits, but he died in his mother's arms when the decision was made to switch off his life support machine. An inquest showed that Leroy's body contained nine grams of salt, the average daily intake for an adult but enough to kill a baby, whose immature kidneys can only process a tiny fraction of that amount.

Coroner Stanley Hooper, recording a verdict of accidental death, said: "I am satisfied death came about because the baby was fed adult food, in particular Ready Brek, for reasons of cheapness. Like so many prepared foods these days, adult food contains salt for reasons of flavor and cheapness. In everyday things there is quite a lot of salt. It may be that various lessons can be learned from this tragic case."

The British Nutrition Foundation said it was extremely rare for a baby to die from salt overdose.

Government-recommended salt levels for infants are lower than for adults because of concerns over organ damage.

But experts say severely restricting salt, which occurs naturally in many foods, can also cause problems.

MOTHER MANUFACTURED SYMPTOMS

Nicholas Hilliard said David Stocker, a 9 years old boy, who had been a healthy karate champion, was in and out of hospital for five months and had turned into little more than skin and bones. He had been treated since February 2001 in Great Ormond Street Hospital and in Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, Essex, with his mother, Petrina Stocker, keeping a bedside vigil. David was ill for months but doctors were unable to make him better because his mother was misleading them. Doctors could not find what was wrong with him because of the various symptoms he displayed, such as loss of appetite and lethargy. Hilliard said Stocker had put blood into urine samples and manufactured vomit samples, in addition to interfering with his intravenous drip.

Hilliard said 13 teaspoons of salt poured into a milk drip feed was the last in a series of acts by Stocker. Stocker had spiked two feed containers with around 18 teaspoons and the boy collapsed after the first one was given to him. "The episode of salt poisoning was the last in a series of acts done in an attempt to fabricate aspects of David's illness and to produce manufactured or misleading symptoms."

David died in August 2001.

COUPLE KILLS CHILD WHO FAILD TO LIVE UP TO THEIR EXPECTATIONS

Ian and Angela Gay was a wealthy couple and had everything doing for them but were childless. They decided to adopt three children, Christian Blewitt, a three-year-old boy, and his younger siblings, Nathan, aged two, and Chloe, aged five months. The boy had been removed from his natural mother, who had been neglecting him, shortly after his first birthday. He had thrived in foster care and a decision had been taken to place him together with his younger siblings.

The children arrived at the Gays' home in November 2002 on a 13-week trial adoption.

Christian failed to live up to their expectations and the couple became abusive and controlling. Just days after the placement began, Mr. Gay, 37, who had given up his engineering job to look after the children, rang his caseworker to complain about the boy, describing Christian as "brainless", "a vegetable" and "a zombie".

Angela Gay had agreed to take three months off work to settle the family but instead returned to her job within weeks of their arrival. Ian Gay said his wife had been under pressure in her job. But there had been friction between them and in the week before Christian's death, Mrs. Gay had wanted to send the children back. The couple feared that if they refused Christian they would lose his brother and sister too. They had earlier divorced over Mrs. Gay's refusal to have children but had later remarried.

On December 8, 2002, five weeks after the children arrived in the Gays' home, Christian had thrown a plate of food on the floor and had been taken upstairs, held at arms length, by Mr. Gay. He put Christian in his sister's cot to confine him. Some time later he found him comatose and took him to Russell's Hall Hospital in Dudley, 27 miles away, bypassing a closer A&E department. Christian was transferred to an intensive care unit in Birmingham and his life support machine was switched off four days later. Christian was dead.

The hospital found that he had a level of salt in his blood equivalent to between 30 and 40 grams and there were 11 "blunt trauma" injuries to his head. The Gay's fed the child up to four teaspoons of salt per day and had caused him a fatal head injury. The couple force-fed Christian with at least four teaspoons of salt either directly or indirectly in his food. Medical experts were unable to determine what caused his head injury.