9-Month-Old Had Blood-Alcohol Level Four Times Legal Limit, Police Say

[WriteDown]

Source: My Fox Chattanooga

Carrollton police found a baby sitter accused of feeding a 9-month-old boy wine, causing his blood-alcohol level to exceed four times the legal limit for an adult.

Carrollton police Sgt. Tony Johnson says authorities have found 40-year-old Tammy Demice Truitt of Carrollton. She was being sought on charges of first-degree cruelty to children and reckless conduct.

Police say Truitt was called to watch the baby and four other children ages 3 to 9 earlier this week when their mother had to leave town to care for a sick relative who has since died.

Doctors said the baby's blood-alcohol content of .33 was considered a life-threatening condition.

Johnson said the baby was released from the hospital on Wednesday and is doing fine.

Read more: http://www.myfoxchattanooga.com/dpp/news/national/9MonthOld_Had_BloodAlcohol_Level_Four_Times_Legal_Limit_Police_Say_00394044

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Who's fault is it really if this kid can't hold his liquor? :evilgrin:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. This is a very sad story...

And your response is reprehensible.

Giving alcohol to a baby is inexcusable.

Period.

[WriteDown]

2. Yeah, like I was serious...

:eyes:

[bettyellen]

11. it's not funny

[WriteDown]

22. You're right. Post #7 was much funnier.

:)

[subcomhd]

12. You sir/m'am are worse than Hitler :-)

[imdjh]

20. People have been giving alcohol (and laudanum) to babies for centuries.

I'm not defending this woman. I would be curious to know how much alcohol it takes to give a nine month old a .33 BAC.

Even when alcohol was given to children medicinally or as a sedative, I believe a teaspoon was the recommended dose, even less if it was cough medicine or laudanum.

[lakercub]

45. Not entirely true

Giving alcohol to a baby is inexcusable.

As a teething remedy, a little bit of brandy rubbed on the gums was used for years, including by my parents. Granted we weren't drinking it, and it was just a tiny amount as a topical pain-killer, but it was effective and I am sure many still do it today. No harm was done and it is actually probably no more harmful (probably less harmful) than some medications specifically designed for the same purpose.

Giving it as a beverage, however, is nuts.

[Deja Q]

3. Did this sort of thing happen 50 years ago and lack of coverage ensured it remained hidden?

Or like people no longer opening doors for others and people telling each other only to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, is feeding infants liquor a the latest step in a develuing, devolving "culture"?

[WriteDown]

5. I blame it on the fact that men are no longer required to where

fedoras and suits wherever they go. Once jeans and t-shirts were allowed, society went downhill.

[Orrex]

6. Don't forget desegregation and the banning of prayer from schools

Everything went to shit after those two commie policies went into effect.

[WriteDown]

9. Good one!

:)

[maglatinavi]

46. good one

what is so good about it??? are you retard or what?

[izquierdista]

10. It happened 100 years ago all the time

One way to keep the kids from getting cholera or diarrhea from water borne diseases was to give them alcoholic beverages.

[Ex Lurker]

13. there's a difference between a spoonful of brandy for medicinal purposes and

pouring shots of booze down a kid's throat just for the hell of it. At least the people in your example were trying to do something beneficial using the best information they had available. This woman had no such motive.

[TheEuclideanOne]

15. I agree 100%. I was when people stopped opening doors.

The only intelligent conclusion anybody coud arrive at. The natural next step is for babysitters to start feeding alcohol to babies. Sure, makes perfect sense to me. :sarcasm:

[angstlessk]

4. I was 4 years old when I was first 'officially' drunk..seems I loved the taste of beer

(still do) and my parents had a party the night before and when my mother was out and my dad was napping, I drained all the 'empty' bottles they had stored for return. My mother said I was 'swinging from the draperies'? I don't remember, maybe cause I was drunk, or maybe cause I was four?

[CoffeeCat]

7. Police discovered this crime...

...when a neighbor spotted the child weaving down the sidewalk in one of these:

[WriteDown]

8. Wow....

Hahahaha.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Seriously, folks, .33 is very close to dead

.4 is generally considered the point at which death occurs.

That's not weaving down the road in a kiddie car. That's not slipping a little alcohol into a bottle for "medicinal" purposes (although I don't think that was ever a good idea, anyway).

For a 20 lb child, that is less than a half glass away from killing him.

[National Steel 27]

35. Somewhere between Invisible and Bulletproof

"Mankind's Ten Stages of Drunkenness"

0). A Zero is sober
1). Witty and Charming
2). Rich and Powerful
3). Benevolent
4). Clairvoyant
5). F**k Dinner
6). Patriotic
7). Crank Up the Enola Gay
8). Witty and Charming, Part II
9). Invisible
10). Bulletproof

I spend most of my evenings between #8 and #9.

[Alcibiades]

36. Less than that

Most of the online BAC calculators won't do a 20 lb weight. That's assuming, of course, that the baby is of average weight--the range for a healthy baby is 15 to 24 pounds.

You'd assume that the wine would be drunk in one sitting--it's hard to imagine even someone this irresponsible giving multiple servings. According to the BAC at http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/alcohol/alcohol.html , two drinks of wine for a 20 pound person in one hour gives a BAC of .581 for a female and .489 for a male. My infant is 10 months old, and takes 6 ounces of formula at a feeding. I bet they gave one full 6 ounce bottle of wine.

[Ms. Toad]

41. That's a different calculator than the one I used.

Here's the one I used: http://www.intox.com/wheel/drinkwheel.asp

2.5 glasses (in an hour) puts a 20 lb girl at .337, and 3.0 glasses puts it at .433 (The gender difference doesn't appear until somewhere around puberty - but all the calculators include it since they probably weren't thinking about infant blood alcohol content).

Your calculator and mine are probably using different size glasses of wine (since neither specified the size).

[downindixie]

16. I find it hard to believe

that a child this young could have drank enought wine to read a .33.He should have gone to sleep long before a .33.Did they do a blood test on the child? Surely he couldn't blow .33 in a breath test.

[Robb]

17. Having just recently started feeding my daughter with the odd bottle

...of mom's milk, I am astounded at how quickly they will down it, given the chance.

Fill one with wine and she could finish it before you recite the pledge of allegiance.

Awful tale.

[No Elephants]

18. The smaller the drinker's body, the fast the alcohol level rises. Wouldn't

Take anywhere near as much for a baby as it would for an adult male.

[Ms. Toad]

24. I closed the BAC calculator - but I think it was about 2.5 drinks

for 20 pounds.

[imdjh]

21. Are nine month olds independent enough to drink from a bottle?

I remember taking a swig of wine or sherry from a carafe when I was about four or five, but I don't think I got myself drunk. I thought it was interesting i flavor, but didn't really care for it. I liked Kool Aid mixed with orange juice and milk.

[JerseygirlCT]

31. Or a cup, sure.

They can be pretty coordinated if they're taught.

[Alcibiades]

34. Not that kind of bottle

I'm sure it was put into a baby bottle.

[Alcibiades]

37. It wouldn't take much

Babies drink. It's one of the things they do best. They can even drink when sleepy. My guess is they probably gave this baby about six ounces of wine. My baby can polish off six ounces of formula in five or ten minutes.

[No Elephants]

19. myfox.

:puke:

[ejpoeta]

23. what is wrong with people!!! why would you feed alcohol to a baby or a child at all!!!

granted, at 12, the new year before my mom died she gave me a sip of her wine cooler.... but come on!! I would never give my children alcohol. We don't usually have any around here anyway. But how much did that kid drink to be that drunk!!

[Grinchie]

25. You don't think Kids get it from Breast Milk? Think again.

While mom is knocking back a beer to relax, the infant is getting ready to become predisposed to alcoholism.

[Ms. Toad]

26. I am NOT recommending drinking while breastfeeding

but the alcohol content in breastmilk is (at most) the BAC of the mother. Since dead is around .4%, it is lower than that. Social drinking typically results in a BAC in the range of .08% to .2% (legally drunk, but not still relatively functional). Non-alcoholic beer is permitted up to .5% - so the (lower) alcohol content of breastmilk is not significant enough to be legally considered an alcoholic beverage.

I didn't even drink coffee while I was breastfeeding - let alone alcohol - BUT doing so is a far cry from feeding alcohol directly to the child (rather than first processing it through a human).

[enlightenment]

39. My pediatrician recommended I drink a beer every day while I

was breastfeeding. She said it helped with milk production. That was 29 years ago. Never hurt my kid (cucumbers did - those caused truly impressive projectile vomiting).

And no, he's not an alcoholic - he's a yoga practicing vegan . . .

[Ms. Toad]

40. It was tomatoes that did my kid in.

For women who have problems relaxing about breastfeeding it probably helps at least from that aspect (and 29 years ago it was hard not to have problems relaxing about it - I had to fight off my parents, my inlaws, and siblings 19 years ago - 29 years ago it was even worse).

As for aiding production - I had my doubts, did a quick search and found this (after I wrote the above comment): http://www.parenthood.com/article-topics/does_alcohol_aid_lactation.html

[enlightenment]

42. Not surprised - I suspect she told me that because I was

freaking out over not having enough milk (I never did - continued to feed, but had to supplement so he got enough nourishment) - so the relaxation aspect was probably paramount in her decision process. I wouldn't have taken a drink if it had been for "psychological reasons" because I didn't like the taste of alcohol at when I was younger.

I drank the requisite beer a day like it was medicine!

[Ms. Toad]

43. For some reason that thought never occurred to me

(not having enough milk). It sure freaked out my SIL and MIL - the former just asked about it. The latter threatened to supplement feedings and stick cereal in the bottle. Fortunately, my little one didn't like any food container other than mom until she was old enough to drink from a cup so the latter never became an issue.

[ejpoeta]

32. huh?? where did that come from??

[caseymoz]

27. Actually, there was a time when this was considered ethical.

And not only wine, opium was given to children to keep them quiet.

It was done in the 19th and early 20th century.

[TommyO]

28. Not to mention that many of us had alcohol rubbed on our gums while teething

with no ill effects.

What happened here was reprehensible, but so is the reaction of the a few of the busy-bodies here.

[vadawg]

29. yup whisky on the gums to soothe the pain

also whisky with lemon and honey for cold relief, im shocked that earlier generations actually managed to survive without the busybodies of today telling them how to raise their kids.

[caseymoz]

44. My point was that people shouldn't be so shocked, "shocked I tell ya."

I remember when driving drunk wasn't a charge, it was an excuse.

[Alcibiades]

38. As featured in "There Will Be Blood."

[greengestalt]

30. This'll shut you up you crying brat...

Least it wasn't Ludes...


In my City in a nearby township a lady got convicted a few years ago of feeding kids drugs at her daycare center. Valium, I think. She fed it to 'em for years as either 'vitamins' or in snacks. Just to shut the brats up so they wouldn't turn feral like "Lord of the Flies." Then some weakling-uh, excuse me, some kid with an allergy of pre-existing condition died. Then the law was all high and mighty and threw the book at her and the media demonized her and end of story...

Reminded me of a "Neurotically Yours" involving Pill-Z the squirrel and his daycare...


Well, sorry to be so "Non-PC" but the real problem is that-

1. People need to work too many hours for too little money, so they don't have time to raise their kids.
2. People are too weak willed to just Unionize and shut down the whole system if they don't get decent pay, hence the constant slide to destitution.
3. They are paid so little, despite working so hard, they'll leave their kids in a "Cheap" daycare center as long as they don't have a Catholic Priest openly molesting kids as they walk in the door.

[rocktivity]

33. At least the baby had enough integrity

Not to get behind a wheel.

:headbang:
rocktivity