Is the bad economy literally putting our children at risk of death? should we ignore the most vulnerable members of society or continue to provide social services?

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• Answered at 9:37 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: frogdawg
  
  My heart goes out to her. I do believe this heartbreaking tragedy was multisystemic in that there were a variety of issues going on: not just one. 1) Women and children throughout the globe are our most vulnerable citizens with considerable less support and access to resources 2) Education in the sense from the time girls are young to adulthood have less opportunities than our male counterparts 3) Formula companies do not actually warn of water intoxification. Until the past few years not very many people even knew you could over dose on water. 4) Access to proper health care and information 5) Access to clean, fresh, and nutricious foods. All women and children deserve this. All families derserve this. 6) More support for single mothers with chilren regardless their soico-economic status.

• Answers (33)

  Answered at 12:36 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: Anonymous
  
  No, I think lack of basic parenting knowledge (perhaps a poor educational system) is to blame in this case.
  
  It's tragic :(
• Answered at 12:37 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: mamapotter
  
  This wasn't an economic issue, it was a knowledge issue. Why didn't this mother recognize the signs for Failure to Thrive? Why didn't a doctor notice he was malnutritioned during a visit? Was she even taking him to the doctor? There are many, many more issues to this than just economics.
• Answered at 12:37 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: Anonymous
  
  And FOR THE RECORD, you can get formula for FREE through WIC. She also could have gone to a church for help.
• Answered at 12:39 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: ny.chica
  
  mamapotter wasn't an economic issue,
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  did you read the entire article? did you read why she was doing this? yes it is an economic issue of you can't afford to buy formula.
• Answered at 12:39 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: Anonymous
  
  "No one ever told 23-year-old Jeri Moss that putting too much water in her baby's formula could kill him."
  
  I'm pretty sure the formula cans give directions on there. I breastfeed, but I'm pretty sure they are there?
  
  
• Answered at 12:40 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: ny.chica
  
  Moss said she couldn't breast-feed and was just trying to stretch the eight to 10 cans of Good Start formula she receives each month through the federal Women, Infants and Children program. The program, known as WIC, provides low-cost or free formula and food for at-risk children.
  She really needed about 15 cans, she said, but couldn't afford $16 to $18 for each.
  "I'm really, really tight, and this is all I had," said Moss, who qualified for food stamps this month. The Department of Children & Families is investigating the incident.
  In 2004, parents of a 3-month-old infant spent between $78 and $92 a month - about $1,100 a year - on infant formula, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the WIC program.
• Answered at 12:41 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: Anonymous
  
  So would the bad economy be to blame for a mother who left her child in the car and it died of heat exposure because she couldn't afford a baby-sitter?
  
  I'm not trying to be mean, but I don't think the economy and President Bush is to blame on the child's death. It's very sad and I don't think she should be punished but I don't think the economy is to blame.
• Answered at 12:42 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: ny.chica
  
  "I really, honestly didn't know," said Moss, who had just learned infant CPR the day before her son's seizure.
  It's a message the hospital also wants to share.
  "This is a very serious situation, especially in thin economic times," said James Orlowski, the hospital's chief of pediatrics, who fears more parents strapped for cash may be doing just what Moss did.
  Infants on formula should receive no additional water until they are about 10 months old, he said.
  Health experts have been documenting cases of infant water intoxication for decades, with the earliest such cases happening in the late 1960s. By the 1990s, several medical journals pointed to the possibility that poverty could be a factor in caregivers providing watered-down formula or bottles of water as a source of nutrition.
  Researchers at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Children's Hospital reported three or four such cases this past summer."
• Answered at 12:43 AM on Dec. 4, 2008 by: ny.chica
  
  anon 12:41I'm not trying to be mean, but I don't think the economy and President Bush is to blame on the child's death.
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  no one even mention Bush. so no one is blaming him

This question is now closed.