Nana forced preemie newborn (less than 9 lbs at the time) to suck on a lollipop.

[a_new_grandma]

I just came across a video of my daughter in law's simple minded mother, that showed her forcing a lollipop into my grandson's mouth and beaming as he was sucking on it. He was born two months premature, and was less than 3 mos. old at the time, but basically his digestive system was more like a 3 week old and he weighed less than 9 pounds.

I used to babysit my grandson overnight a LOT, many time 3 days straight. I noticed that whenever he was over at the other grandparents for the day that he was a totally different child when he came back home.

He was very irritated and agitated, full of gas, crying a lot, had a hard time sleeping, etc. etc.

I asked my DIL what went on over there, as when he was here I never had any problems like those. I continually asked if they were possibly feeding him anything he should not have (i.e. giving him tastes of their food, feeding him baby food, etc.) and was told that they were specifically told NOT to give him anything so she did not think they were. But then again, she was given baked beans at 3 days of age, her brother was put on whole milk at 3 days (because formula was too expensive) and a one month old in the family was being given pieces of chicken nuggets, Dimetapp was routinely used on most babies in the family after shots were given (to help them sleep) so there was no telling what they were doing to/with him.

I kept track of how he did whenever he was over there for the day and finally told my son that there was definitely something going on, it was NOT just a coincidence that he came home a totally different baby. EVERY TIME he was over there he came home distressed. EVERY SINGLE TIME. She then told me that maybe it was just because he may be over tired because he was not getting naps because too many people were always handling him, etc.

Well, the other day I was given a video of him, showing the other grandmother forcing a lollipop into the babies mouth. Even when he turned his head, she would continually put the sucker back in his mouth, and she was very proud of what she was doing.

What person in there right mind would decide to have a less than 9 pound preemie suck on a lollipop? I just cannot being to understand that. And if they were doing that, it certainly makes me wonder about what other stupid things they were doing to that poor little helpless, defenseless newborn baby. She may very well have just given him teaspoons of sugar, as that is all a lollipop is made of.

Nearly every member of that family (both sides) have some kind of problem and many have asthma attacks that are caused by food allergies. Gee, I cannot imagine why.

Whenever I expressed my concern over them doing something totally stupid I was told that "oh, they did that with all the kids and we turned out fine." What? No, they didn't turn out FINE, they may be ALIVE, but that's basically about it.

Has anyone heard of people doing this at that age? And what kind of problems can overloading a newborn with sugar cause?

[ohmeowzer RN, RN]

no in 24 years of being a nurse i have never heard such a thing. that baby can't digest that sugar and the baby could choke. they are still learning to manage their secretions. what a foolish thing for her to do. some people have no brains in heir head. good heavens, what was this woman thinking?

[Magsulfate, BSN, RN]

I am sure that the baby's tummy is very upset when this happens! No wonder the baby is so fussy after leaving their home. Thank goodness he has you to come to! Be an advocate for that baby !! Poor little thing.

[whiskeygirl, LPN]

I am sure if the video was posted on You Tube the comments about what was happening would not be very positive. :S

[Neveranurseagain, RN]

This is borderline child abuse or neglect and the baby needs to be removed from her care! She could cause serious problems with his health, and if she is this simple minded about feeding, she may be as simple minded when bathing, and think it's ok to leave him while she answers the phone.

[a_new_grandma]

I'd like to thank all of you who have responded above.

My husband went berserk when he saw the video and child abuse was the first thing that came to his mind. This incident happened back in May, but we are just now finding out about it. I just wonder what other totally stupid, insane and neglectful and abusive things were done do the poor little baby during that time.

My son did put an end to them babysitting, and the baby was then only allowed to visit the other grandparents with the baby's mother being there, but then we found out that she would still leave him with them, and now with this video coming to surface, they are no longer allowed to go over there unless my son is with them.

[Acosmo27]

not to mention I would think that could cause some type of rebound hypoglycemia?

[a_new_grandma]

I don't know if what they were doing was causing this problem or not, but everyone in my family noticed that something just was not right with the baby when he was a bit younger. Maybe it was because he was so premature? and not quite developed yet? I don't know. But it seemed to us as if he was in his own little world all the time, in a semi-stupor almost and then just one day he came out of it and realized he was a person and now he's a totally different child. Maybe because he had very limited access to those people? Like I said, I don't know if the stupid things they were doing were causing that or not, but right now he seems to be a happy, healthy, spunky little guy. :-)

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Back the truck up guys...sugar coated sootheres are used for pain control in NICUs all the time, so a lollipop will not hurt the baby. Grandma may be dumber than a bag of hammers, but she didn't cause any damage that time.

As far as having her regularly babysit- I wouldn't send her anyone under 5 years of age, and never for a whole day. Even then, they'd be preloaded with vegetables and armed with a little Maalox and my phone number. She's a little bit nuts IMHO, and should be supervised by someone that will stop her when she doesn't follow parental directions.

[truern]

Aren't all "preemie newborns" less that 9 pounds?!?

You would have died of shock had you seen what MY premie was given in the NICU....a whiskey nipple! She also often had glucose nipples to suck on.

[mauxtav8r]

Yes, sugar is given as an adjunct for pain control in newborns, but is that indicated here?

My dear, departed gramma tried to give my (healthy) 6 month old coca cola and was astonished that my husband stopped her. She took offense over that one until the day she died, but I'd still stop her.

[truern]

I don't care to give ammunition to a new poster that's not in healthcare to use against her DIL's "simple minded mother".

jmho