Calif. Baby died of drug overdose from breast milk

[The Straight Story]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A child advocacy worker is criticizing Sacramento County's response in the case of an 8-month-old boy who died after ingesting his mother's drug-laced milk.

A report by the Sacramento Bee says Child Protective Services took three months to fully respond to the case of a child considered at risk after tests found he was exposed to the drugs.

Ryder Salmen died September 2012 after overdosing on a fatal mix of Xanax, methadone and the painkiller Opana. Court documents said the infant's mother had been warned five months earlier to stop breastfeeding because of high levels of methadone found in her baby's bloodstream. The test came after Ryder, then 4 months old, was brought to a hospital because he was lethargic.

Documents obtained under the California Public Records Act by the Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/18uq73d ) show that after the hospital visit, social workers determined Ryder was at risk. A safety plan was required for him to remain in his mother's custody.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Calif-Baby-died-of-drug-overdose-from-breast-milk-4780453.php

[NYC_SKP]

1. Agencies bend over backwards to keep families intact, and then this shit happens.

Let's get real, some people are not capable of caring for children.

It could be a temporary condition but they still aren't capable.

[Ilsa]

2. The evidence may clear her.

She said she had stopped nursing the baby, and a bottle of formula was found in his crib without drugs in it.

Very little drug gets through a mother's system and into breast milk. There are many issues, like molecule size, protein-binding, etc that play a part in whether a baby is drugged. It wouldn't surprise me to see her exonerated and someone else arrested for the baby's murder.

[LisaL]

3. She was told to stop breasfeeding five month prior because the infant had high level of methadone

in his system.
This really doesn't sound like a complicated case to me.

[Ilsa]

4. There may be evidence that she did.

It's easy to gang up on the druggie mom who didn't do as she was told, but maybe she did stop as she said she did. There was a bottle in the crib. And maybe someone else drugged the baby, if, that is what actually killed the poor child.

There are unanswered questions, and frankly, it's not that easy to overdose via breastmilk, especially an 8 month old.