An ER Doctor Is Warning Parents Not to Dilute Baby Formula Due to Possible Seizures in Infants
Seizures in a baby are one of the scariest things I have personally ever experienced.
One ER doctor, Dr. Owais Durrani, is warning about life-threatening seizures in infants caused by consuming the diluted baby formula.
With the formula shortage, desperate parents are trying their hardest to keep their children fed, but there are risks.
Dr. Owais Durrani is an emergency room physician and he said that parents are feeding infants watered-down formula to stretch it out.
This can create an unbalance of the electrolytes that babies need and increase health risks.
When the electrolyte needs are not met, it can lead to low sodium, which shrinks blood volume, which then causes low blood pressure, which can then result in life-threatening low levels of oxygen circulation.
A formula is essentially regulated as closely as any prescribed medication when it comes to the ingredients in it to make sure a baby’s kidneys are developing, their liver, their electrolytes — everything else is in a very fine balance.
Dr. Owais Durrani
Electrolyte imbalances can also cause fatal seizures, and that is SCARY!
They’re not as resilient as an adult who might be out in the sun for 12 hours and get dehydrated — we’ll still be OK for the most part, but for a baby, that’s not the case. Each electrolyte, each component, each mineral in that formula is very important.
Dr. Owais Durrani
Dr. Owais Durrani said that most babies should be able to tolerate other formula brands when their normal brand is out of stock.
This is different if the baby has severe allergies though!
He did suggest that parents ask their pediatrician and local hospital for formula samples to help them through this time.
Pediatricians are here to help. We’re here to help. We’re not going to turn a hungry baby away from the emergency department. We’ll make sure when that baby’s discharged, there’s some type of plan in place. But please don’t use any of those other options because that can lead to life-threatening issues.
Dr. Owais Durrani
Have you had to deal with the baby formula shortage? What are you doing to get through it?
