S.I.D.S Or Murder?
AdventureDad | June 18S.I.D.S has always been a subject that worried me , especially with our first child. I wrote about a possible cure a while back at this site and got some comments. One comment touched me since it was from a mother who had just lost her son to SIDS. She also wrote me some private emails and we emailed back and forth a few times. The story unfortunately has a horrible twist to it. The parent has since been charged with murder of her 6-month old son, Thomas Boettger, and is currently in prison awaiting trial.
When our son was born over 3 years ago I felt great about becoming a father and the tremendous responsibility didn’t bother me. But S.I.D.S did. To wake up one morning finding my son’s cold and lifeless body has been on my mind many times. S.I.D.S is scary to me since researchers have few answers of potential causes. There are several things that will increase the risks but even if I did everything right, my son could still have fallen asleep and never woken up.
Thomas Boettger’s parents seems to have been handling their parental duties far from perfect:
According to the document, the father told a medical investigator that his son woke up about 5 a.m. last Oct. 25, crying heavily, and he gave the baby a dose of Zantac and a half-tablet of Sominex.He later gave another account, in which he said he gave his son crushed half-pills of Unisom, Zantac and Benadryl via syringes and bottles, said Medical Investigator James Ramirez.
Greco said earlier that the Boettgers had been giving the infant over- the-counter adult drugs “over a period of time.”
Not only is S.I.D.S scary to me but this tragic case sounds a lot like our now 9-month old daughter. Only we didn’t constantly fill her up with drugs. Thomas Boettger had colic and was naturally crying a lot. So did our daughter. He also had acid reflux. Our daughter had that too. And on top of that, our daughter has virtually zero patience and can be described as a cranky Energizer bunny.
We have had many difficult days with our daughter. If you have had a baby with colic, you know what I’m talking about. She’s now 10 months old but let me sum it up by saying she’s high maintenance. There have been days when I wanted to hang myself in the nearest tree or give her away to a stranger. We did get some over the counter drops from our local doctor that helped a bit in the beginning and gave us some relief. But never in our wildest dreams did we ever consider mixing adult medications into some kind of miracle formula. What kind of sick thinking is this?
Before becoming a parent I think it’s a good idea of being prepared for anything. There’s a Swedish expression that says “gilla läget”. It basically means one must do the best out of every situation. Even if it’s not always pleasant. A baby can be born with various problems and nothing about personality traits can be predicted. First baby could be an angel, second one could be a “nightmare”. Just because a baby doesn’t come out exactly as predicted or wished for, poor parenting is no excuse. A baby can’t chose his/her parents.
Thomas Boettger tragically got very unlucky and will never have a chance to grow up and see the world. As far as I know the trial has not started yet so the parents are of course innocent until proven guilty. But is sure sounds like they made some terrible choices under difficult circumstances.
