Lest I be accussed of unfairly blogging about breastfeeding moms
Posted
May 1, 2006 at
8:48 am by
Jessica
It’s not how you feed ‘em, it’s how you treat ‘em. The AP newswire’s story as reported in The Duluth News Tribune:
LA CROSSE, Wis. - A 43-year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to charges that she repeatedly laced her 5-week-old daughter’s formula with a sleeping medication.
Kimberly Barnett of Prairie du Chien initially denied doing anything to her daughter when La Crosse police told her the baby had tested positive for a class of drugs called benzodiazepines, according to the criminal complaint.
Later, she gave police a syringe and a container of capsules used to treat insomnia, telling officials she mixed them with baby formula and gave her daughter the mixture twice a day, the complaint said.
She started to cry and said, “I didn’t think it would hurt her,” but then she began speaking in a different tone of voice and identified herself by two other names, police said.
Barnett addressed the La Crosse County Circuit Court by telephone Friday as she waived her preliminary hearing. She faces felony charges of intentional physical abuse of a child by a caretaker and of manufacture or delivery of a drug.
She remained silent as a not-guilty plea was entered on her behalf.
The baby was admitted to Franciscan Skemp Medical Center in La Crosse on Jan. 9 for dehydration, diarrhea and chronic sleepiness, the complaint said.
The baby was active on the evening of Jan. 10 but slept for 19 hours uninterrupted after Barnett administered a 2 a.m. feeding, a nurse told La Crosse police.
Barnett was released on a signature bond and the infant placed in foster care.
She started to cry and say, “I didn’t think it would hurt her.”?? Uh-huh. Right. Because it’s common practise to lace your newborns formula with adult sleeping medication. AND WHY is a seriously mentally ill mother caring for a newborn, presumably on her own??? If this baby did wind up dying, this woman might be given a pardon because she’s mentally ill, instead of acknowledging that serious mental illness and caring for a baby doesn’t jibe. Instead of celebrating forgiveness and sympathy after a cruel act such as this one, why is there any resistance to protect these children from the get-go?
Thank goodness this woman’s mental state (which lead to neglect) did not leave her infant dead, although I wonder if she might have suffered some brain damage from this sort of neglect. Let’s hope the mother gets treatment and a jail cell.
 |
3 Responses to “Lest I be accussed of unfairly blogging about breastfeeding moms”
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately in an effort to remove commercial messages, irrelevancies, excessive foul language, racist/sexist/hateful comments, spoofed/cloaked IPs and/or personal attacks and will be edited/deleted at our discretion. Thank you for your patience.
1. Melissa said:
May 1, 2006 @ 10:53 pm
I’m very glad the child is going to be ok. Although don’t get the wrong impression, you can have serious mental condition and take care of a child. I’m Bipolar I with Borderline personality and I’m taking care of my 10 month very well. I’m also on meds and in therapy. So it can be done, just not in this lady’s case.
Poor baby.
2. Alan Thomas said:
May 5, 2006 @ 10:11 am
Well, it’s how you feed them and how you treat them.
3. A former neighbor said:
December 17, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
I am a former neighbor of the woman who did this. Believe it or not, she used to be a nurse, and actually told people that she tried to kill the child. Being a former nurse, how could she NOT know that she could have killed her daughter? The child is now two, and has not suffered any brain damage because of her mother’s actions. She is a beautiful little girl, and her dad is doing a wonderful job with her.