TEN MONTH OLD BABY DIED AFTER BEING FORCE-FED

A baby girl choked to death after being force-fed by her parents, the Old Bailey heard today (Thurs).

The infant known only as Baby D, who was 10 months old, inhaled food into her lungs  after being fed ‘dangerously’.

The parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had not intended to kill their child but their ‘ill treatment’ led to her death, it was said.

The baby girl died on March 3 last year. Her parents are now facing trial for causing or allowing her death.

Opening the case for the prosecution Andrew Edis QC said: ‘This is a very sad case.

‘A young baby (Baby D) a child these two defendants died, she was just a little over 10 months old.

‘She died because of the method by which her parents chose to feed her at the time when she was being introduced to solid food, or weaned from milk to solids.

‘The allegation is a form of force feeding.’

He told the jury Baby D was ‘entirely dependent’ on her parents for food, which she needed to ‘thrive prosper and survive’.

But couple, aged 31 and 37, had ignored the potential dangers or warning signs of over feeding.

‘Everyone who has ever had a small baby to feel knows there is a potential danger – it is choking,’ said the prosecutor.

‘If a child takes food down in to the lungs rather than to the stomach that child will choke and splutter and be distressed.

‘That is part of the mechanism of protecting the airways to the lungs, it shouldn’t go down the wrong way, as it is called.

‘When you have a child in your arms that is choking you know something has to be done because it should not be choking.’

Mr Edis said it should be an ‘instinctive’ reaction to do something and help a choking child and not led food continue to go in to the lungs.

‘That is what happened to Baby D she was force fed in that manner, feeding didn’t stop but carry on even though when a child is choking it is perfectly obvious they are in distress,’ he said.

‘The prosecution don’t suggest this is a deliberate case of murder or anything of that kind where by the person feeding her wanted to kill her.

‘This is a very sad case, but never the less the evidence will show you this child died because she was ill-treated by her parents.’

The father, 37, and mother, 30, from east London, deny causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial continues.

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ENDS

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22 September 2011

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The court heard that the mother, a nurse, fed the infant by pouring food into her mouth from a jug.

Mr Edis said: ‘An ordinary mother who wasn’t a nurse might think twice before using a jug to pour food into the mouth of a child – it’s obviously dangerous.

‘It would give her no choice [of refusing to eat].

‘If she was force-fed, there was a significant risk of harm being caused to her – force-feeding can kill.

‘As parents caring for a child, both of them had a duty to take positive steps to make sure she was safe.

‘If one was feeding her in a way that wasn’t safe, the other had a duty to stop it because they were both jointly responsible for her care.’

He added that a post-mortem examination of her lung tissue found food and signs of inflammation.

‘They will tell you that the inflammation means that this introduction of food into the lungs of this child has been going on for weeks or months,’ he said.

‘The lungs react adversely to the presence of this foreign material in them, which causes an inflammatory reaction, which causes pneumonia, which causes respiratory failure, which causes death.’

Mr Edis’ opening continues tomorrow at 12noon.
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ends