A 4-month-old baby was hospitalized in southern Italy with symptoms of an alcoholic coma. The facts were reported in an article in the Italian newspaper La Repubblicaspotted by The Parisian. In question, what appears to be an error on the part of the child’s grandmother. She prepared her bottle with white wine instead of water, to dilute the powdered milk.
An infant in an alcoholic coma
The infant was taken by his grandmother to the Perrino hospital in Brindisi (Apulia) where he was treated in pediatrics for serious poisoning. According to information reported by the Italian daily, it was a domestic accident.
The child would have absorbed part of the preparation before refusing to continue drinking. On Monday April 29, the baby underwent gastric lavage before being intubated and transferred to intensive care at the Bari pediatric hospital. His condition was then stable but, at only 4 months, the prognosis remains guarded.
Poisoning, second cause of domestic accidents among children
In children, poisoning is the second cause of everyday accidents after trauma, notes the Ameli.fr website. And thealcoholalcohol is extremely harmful to them. “A sip of ‘Grand Marnier’ for example can already be the cause of alcohol poisoning in a 10 kilo child”, illustrates the Belgian poison control center. The average weight of a 4 month old baby is only 6 or 7 kilos.
The severity of the intoxication will depend on the age and weight of the child, the quantity of alcohol ingested and the alcohol content of the drink. If poisoning is proven, the little victim will have to be hospitalized.
“Alcohol passes through theesophagusesophagusstomach andsmall intestinesmall intestine and arrives in the blood. It affects different parts of the body, such as brainbrainwhich causes a feeling of ‘floating'”, continues the poison control center.
A risk of neurological after-effects
According to a 2007 note from the French Society of Emergency Medicine, “three complications are particularly to be feared in children:acidosisacidosis metabolic and hypothermia are common and correlated with ethanolemia; L’hypoglycemiahypoglycemia is rare. But “in fasting children, it is to be feared” and can then “to train a comacomaof the convulsionsconvulsions and after-effectsafter-effects neurological”. Indeed, we now know that alcohol has a deleterious effect on brain development until it has completed its maturation, at the end of adolescence. The damage may be irreversible.
To know
For moderate poisoning in a young child, it is advisable to give him three to four drinks sugarssugars diluted in half a glass of water and monitor the appearance of signs of intoxication or drowsinessdrowsiness.
