BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — As families across the country deal with trying to make ends meet, doctors are seeing some parents turning to dangerous methods to stretch their dollars including watering down baby formula.
Pediatricians and emergency physicians are sounding the alarm, warning that improper formula preparation can have permanent consequences.
Dr. Meghan Martin is an emergency medicine physician who trained at Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo. She recently treated an infant who experienced seizures due to diluted formula.
"Recently, I had a young patient present with seizure activity; we were able to get medication to get the seizure to stop," Dr. Martin said. "When we did lab work, we saw the sodium levels were low. So we asked the parents about what the baby had been eating and drinking and the baby had been breastfed, but mom had to go back to work after six weeks. She wasn't able to pump enough at work, so they had to start introducing formula. The formula wasn't mixed properly. The ratio of scoops to water was off. The baby had been getting too much water and ended up with water intoxication."
Infants under one year old have underdeveloped kidneys, which makes them more susceptible to water intoxication. Most baby formulas require one scoop of formula for every two ounces of water. Doctors stress the importance of following this exact ratio.
Dr. Stephen Turkovich, President of Oishei Children's Hospital, emphasized that improperly mixing baby formula can lower a baby's sodium levels, leading to seizures, brain swelling, or even permanent brain damage.
"One of the things that can happen is the dilute formula can cause their sodium, or their salt content in their blood, to drop to dangerous levels," Dr. Turkovich said. "That can cause some seizures. We call it water intoxication, so it's really important that when you make your formula, you put the water in there first and then you make the scoops."
While the condition is treatable if caught early, Dr. Turkovich said you can prevent this from happening by not giving plain water to babies under three months old and limiting water intake between six and 12 months.
For families struggling to afford baby formula, he recommended contacting a pediatrician or utilizing available community resources.
"There's many ways you can get formula," Dr. Turkovich said. "WIC is one of those great organizations that can help you get formula and also food for you if you are a breastfeeding mom and for the rest of your family."
Another resource is FeedMore WNY, which said it supported about 4,000 infants last year through its food bank distribution network.
"These items can often be expensive," said Public Relations Manager Catherine Shick. "For many families who may have limited resources, they may be in a very impossible decision in terms of what resources you can allocate; Do I purchase baby formula? Do I purchase groceries?"
FeedMore WNY provides formula and food assistance and can be contacted through their website at feedmorewny.org or by calling (716) 822-2002.
