Murder, Neglect or Behavioral Disorder?

[Andy]

Check out the Good Morning America news story on a little boy who ate enough food seasoning to kill him. Now the mom has been in prison for over a year for poisoning her son. They say she forced him to eat 23 tbs of the salt.

The mom states she had noticed odd behaviors from the little boy and that he was starting to horde food. They think he may have had PICA. He became very sick and the parents took him into the ER as soon as they figured out it was serious and they could not care for him.

The defendants are saying the jury was not allowed to hear all the evidence. The dad got charged also but was put on probation. He is raising the large family.

How very sad!

 

[Jena]

What?? That sounds totally bizarre.

 

[KTMom91]

From reading the article, it seems to me that not all necessary information made it into the trial. And GMA just finished airing it...I think people already had their minds made up that she was guilty. And her husband, who was there also, got probation? It will be interesting to see if she wins on appeal.

 

[Hound dog]

Sort of sad, huh?

Aubrey......we have to hide the salt from her. She'll try to comsume the entire shaker, I kid you not. pediatrician doctor has prescribed vits with minerals. It helps some.....but not much. And he won't test her for anything else. I guess he just doesn't believe Nichole when she tells him Aubrey will attempt to eat the entire shaker of salt. (and my shakers are not small by a long shot)

I hope the family appeals.

 

[lovemysons]

Hi Adrianne,

Ya, I saw this story on 20/20 a week or 2 ago. First thing I thought was "Wow, this is really gonna cause people to rethink adopting a child with problems"...

If I recall correctly his bio mom used drugs while she was pregnant.

I too got the impression the jury did not hear all of the medical findings regarding this lil boys condition. I think he must have had some kind of disorder for sure.

I felt very sad for the family as well. I think the mom and dad have 5 bio children if I'm not mistaken. Oh, and apparently their church raised over 700 thous dollars to help with their defense if I remember right.

 

[Lothlorien]

I haven't seen or read the story. PICA is one of those disorders that is not talked about enough. Parents are very uninformed about it. When children start eating things they aren't supposed too, parents are embarrassed and often don't speak about it. If this was truly a case about PICA, then it's very, very sad for the parents and the child. Hopefully, this will bring more attention to this awful disorder and parents will be more educated, so they won't be embarrassed about bringing their child's disorder to the forefront.

 

[witzend]

I've seen this on tv. At best, if they didn't knowingly do this to the boy, and knew he had odd eating habits, it was willful neglect to not lock up "non-food" things to protect him. As I recall, they let him be sick for a while before taking him to a hospital? They said that if "left unwatched he would forage for food and eat inappropriate items." He was a foster child, and if they couldn't watch him they should have returned him to state custody or asked for more help. Of course the infected mosquito bites and scratches and bruises don't make them look too good, either.

Sorry, and I know this is my personal opinion, but mom doesn't get a pass on this. Capital murder? Maybe, under their statutes.