Mom Who Lost Kids Say Baby's Medical Condition Was Mistaken for Abuse

[Celebration]

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Wanosik, insisting her husband's innocence, "immediately went proactive," according to Sullivan, the family's attorney, scouring the Internet for information on brittle bones. "The first thing she found was vitamin D and rickets, so she got herself tested."

In April, Holick, a professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine, examined Wanosik and found her vitamin D levels were 5 nanograms (ng) per milliliter (ml) of blood, "almost undetectable" and "low enough for rickets." A healthy vitamin D level is between 20 and 30 ng/ml.

Zeydn's vitamin D levels were even lower than her mother's, 4.3 ng/ml, according to Wanosik. The baby has since been taking vitamin supplements.

All the kids have been in foster care for months.

[Warpy]

1. Brittle bone disease has put a lot of kids into foster care

It's only when the kids keep having broken bones in the foster homes that doctors who read their histories get suspicious and start running tests, it's pretty rare.

Most kids with multiple fractures who end up in foster care really needed to be taken away from one or more abusive adults.

I hope these parents get their children back. I think the tats and piercings are likely dragging this one out. The state needs to catch a clue: people who look scary usually aren't. It's the people who look the most normal you have to be afraid of.

[phylny]

2. I've had two kids I work with in Early Intervention taken from their families due to

"failure to thrive" who have documented feeding disorders. I have testified in court and reminded the judge that the pediatrician who testified against the parents did so after signing my plan of care about the child's feeding disorder. The kids went to foster care and guess what? Still had feeding disorders, still didn't gain weight.

One of the kids even had pinworms.

Yes, children need to be protected, but the courts and child protective agencies need to be smarter.

[NickB79]

3. It was a mixture of poor diet and metabolic disorder at work

The article doesn't state she or her baby has brittle bone syndrome, Osteogenesis imperfecta. In fact, it says they're treating the baby with Vit. D supplements, which isn't a standard treatment for brittle bone syndrome.

It DOES state she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes joint hyperflexibility and more frequent fractures.

It also states she cut out all dairy from her diet, which is often a good source of Vit. D, and never took Vit. D supplements.

This appears to be a case of UNINTENTIONAL child abuse combined with one metabolic disorder (Ehler's Danlos), leading to rickets and bone breakage.

That said, now that she's aware of what happened, she should be given her children back provided she keeps them (and herself) on a healthier diet.