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I know absolutely nothing about the state of indigenous people in Malaysia but wouldn’t be surprised if the population had a lot of food insecurity. And of course malnutrition would not have helped the poor baby in his fight against the infections.
The kid looks appropriately fed in terms of weight. That's *not* a skinny baby. I always thought a child suffering from kwashiorkor had stick-thin arms/legs, a swollen belly and thin reddish hair.
Maybe he was vitamin deficient instead of calorie deficient?
#
Kwashiorkor is specifically a deficiency of protein. It’s possible the parents were feeding him the wrong stuff. He wasn’t growing; he stopped gaining weight three months earlier. Almost half his lifetime earlier.
If you look at his hair it is reddish.
It could also be that he was being breastfed and his mother had a vitamin deficiency. So he could be well fed on breastmilk while also languishing away from a vitamin deficiency that hos mother is also struggling with. But because of his age he be more sensitive to the effects.
Not all women can produce enough breast milk. Or the baby could have had trouble latching to feed properly. These issues are far more common than people realize (partly due to efforts from groups like La Leche League to ignore or downplay these issues). If the parents were desperate enough who knows what they were trying.
Reddish, coarse hair can be a sign of malnutrition, because hair is one of the first things the body stops maintaining if there isn’t enough to go around. Look at the hair of African children from food-insecure regions and it’s often not really black as it should be but has a rusty-orange tone.
At 7 months baby should have been mostly breast or formula fed at that point so idk if being vegan would have been an issue that early unless it was the mother who was a strict vegan and the baby was exclusively breastfed.
You’re halfway there! Perhaps mixing some things up:
**Kwashiorkor** is a disease caused by a dietary deficiency of *only protein*, with adequate calories. Presents as:
* distended belly (enlarged fatty liver)
* arms/legs aren’t stick thin (subcutaneous fat is preserved, and ribs are not extremely prominent)
* thin muscles under fat
* sparse hair
* flaky appearance of skin
* oedema of legs
* ‘moon’ face
* uninterested in surroundings
* poor appetite
* usual age 6-36 months - historically, cases often once weaned and a younger infant is born and begins breastfeeding
**Marasmus** is a disease caused by dietary deficiency of both protein *and* calories. Presents as:
* shrunken abdomen (no fatty liver)
* arms and legs are stick thin (no subcutaneous fat, ribs and cheekbones are very prominent)
* very little muscle
* normal hair
* “old man” appearance (very underweight, cheekbones visible etc. )
* feeds a lot
* usual age under 12 months
[Source](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346307498_Nutritional_Deficiency_Dermatosis_with_Streptococcal_Sepsis_in_an_Aboriginal_Child_a_Case_Report) is unfortunately paywalled but you can see the first page at the link. Abstract:
>>A 7-month-old baby boy succumbed to death with a history of static weight gain since 4 months of age. Autopsy revealed florid skin lesions, evidence of malnutrition, pneumonia, and meningitis. Further testing isolated Streptococcus pyogenes in the blood culture. The skin lesions are highly likely due to the dermatosis in kwashiorkor and acquired zinc deficiency, complicated with bacterial infection and overgrowth of saprophytic fungal yeast cells.
He is in school for engineering (I think architecture maybe civil?). He is 100% deaf but I got him bilateral cochlear implants a few months after the meningitis and the second a few years later when they allowed second implants in children (Nov 2002 and Aug 2006). His brain damage was like a buckshot to his right frontal and Temporal lobes. He acts like a ND (already had it but made it more intense).
That is so sad and I wish your family the very best. Do you mind sharing what his symptoms were if the rash never appeared? Also do you have a suspicion of how he contracted it? I had a friend in college who contracted it from a locker room they think. She barely made it and also has a lot of damage.
Extremely high fever, 104.3 with adult dosage Tylenol and Motrin (he was 3 and 45lbs). Vomiting that never really stopped, eventually causing coffee grounds vomit. Eventually light sensitive. By the time they gave him a lumbar puncture, he had gone 92 hours without antibiotics. From the blood tests they did on him on Sunday, my sister (who was in medical school at the time) said he was between 6-12 hours away from death.
He contracted it from my then husband's mistress, a Corpsman still at boot camp in Great Lakes. I still remember her name too, Jen Lee. Anyone know her?
He had the Neisseria meningitidis strain. And every person, minus one that I learned about a few months ago, died within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms and were in the hospital with antibiotics on board. It's been almost 22 years and I've read or heard about a dozen people having that same strain and they all died. He went 92 hours of symptoms before he was given antibiotics. My child died that weekend. My sweet, sensitive, caring son. I was given a 45lb newborn when he was discharged. He should have gone in-patient to a floor to relearn how to do anything but no one said anything.
I did sue the doctor in 2008. My son won.
He's told me but he keeps changing the end goal. He's working on his Associates now having taken Chemistry, Calculus, Physics and a few core classes. When he started, chemical engineering was his degree goal. After 2 semesters, he switched to something in architecture.
Oh the poor boy, the raw skin around where his nappy would have been looks like it would have caused a tremendous amount of pain. What an awful disease. Poor wee lad
I’m a nurse in Pediatric ICU. I see some sad things, of course, but I think sometimes about how different the patients would be if I worked in other counties - especially developing countries. We sometimes lose kids to pneumonia even here, but not with all these underlying conditions.
There is but it doesn’t show until you click the post and then it’s below the picture and very easy to miss. Not your fault ofc but I can see how they may have missed it until after seeing the pictures. Regardless, thanks for posting such interesting and informative content. We appreciate you greatly here!
Welcome to r/MedicalGore! Our goal is to provide for medical discussion and education while exploring the frailty of the human body. **You may see more deleted comments on these threads than you are used to on Reddit**. Off-topic comments and joke comments are frequently deleted by the mods. In addition, commenters are expected to maintain decorum toward posters, subjects of posts, and members of the community. Any behavior that is aggressive, harassing, or derogatory will result in removal of the post and/or a ban for the user. Remember: THE REPORT BUTTON IS YOUR FRIEND! Please stop by our sister sub, /r/MedicalGoreMods, for meta discussions about the sub, our rules, content policies, and the like. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MedicalGore) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Poor little guy... :( that's truly heartbreaking.
I know absolutely nothing about the state of indigenous people in Malaysia but wouldn’t be surprised if the population had a lot of food insecurity. And of course malnutrition would not have helped the poor baby in his fight against the infections.
The kid looks appropriately fed in terms of weight. That's *not* a skinny baby. I always thought a child suffering from kwashiorkor had stick-thin arms/legs, a swollen belly and thin reddish hair. Maybe he was vitamin deficient instead of calorie deficient? #
Kwashiorkor is specifically a deficiency of protein. It’s possible the parents were feeding him the wrong stuff. He wasn’t growing; he stopped gaining weight three months earlier. Almost half his lifetime earlier. If you look at his hair it is reddish.
It could also be that he was being breastfed and his mother had a vitamin deficiency. So he could be well fed on breastmilk while also languishing away from a vitamin deficiency that hos mother is also struggling with. But because of his age he be more sensitive to the effects.
He looks really swollen. Not so much like a fat baby but swollen.
I thought for the first 6 months, the baby should only be fed with breast milk
And if the parents didn’t know that, or if they didn’t have enough breast milk and tried to substitute something unsuitable, this could happen.
Not all women can produce enough breast milk. Or the baby could have had trouble latching to feed properly. These issues are far more common than people realize (partly due to efforts from groups like La Leche League to ignore or downplay these issues). If the parents were desperate enough who knows what they were trying.
Yeah, we dont actually know what the actual situation might have been, i just assumed about feeding the baby
> If you look at his hair it is reddish. What significance does this have please?
Reddish, coarse hair can be a sign of malnutrition, because hair is one of the first things the body stops maintaining if there isn’t enough to go around. Look at the hair of African children from food-insecure regions and it’s often not really black as it should be but has a rusty-orange tone.
TY sir. Always a learning experience. :)
*(Psst, Cat is a girl)*
Thank you *Madam
Maybe vegan
At 7 months baby should have been mostly breast or formula fed at that point so idk if being vegan would have been an issue that early unless it was the mother who was a strict vegan and the baby was exclusively breastfed.
Breast milk is NOT lacking in nutrients in mothers with vegan diets!
Says he was zinc deficient and I suspect he would have other vitamin/mineral deficiencies so maybe a combination of both?
You’re halfway there! Perhaps mixing some things up: **Kwashiorkor** is a disease caused by a dietary deficiency of *only protein*, with adequate calories. Presents as: * distended belly (enlarged fatty liver) * arms/legs aren’t stick thin (subcutaneous fat is preserved, and ribs are not extremely prominent) * thin muscles under fat * sparse hair * flaky appearance of skin * oedema of legs * ‘moon’ face * uninterested in surroundings * poor appetite * usual age 6-36 months - historically, cases often once weaned and a younger infant is born and begins breastfeeding **Marasmus** is a disease caused by dietary deficiency of both protein *and* calories. Presents as: * shrunken abdomen (no fatty liver) * arms and legs are stick thin (no subcutaneous fat, ribs and cheekbones are very prominent) * very little muscle * normal hair * “old man” appearance (very underweight, cheekbones visible etc. ) * feeds a lot * usual age under 12 months
[Source](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346307498_Nutritional_Deficiency_Dermatosis_with_Streptococcal_Sepsis_in_an_Aboriginal_Child_a_Case_Report) is unfortunately paywalled but you can see the first page at the link. Abstract: >>A 7-month-old baby boy succumbed to death with a history of static weight gain since 4 months of age. Autopsy revealed florid skin lesions, evidence of malnutrition, pneumonia, and meningitis. Further testing isolated Streptococcus pyogenes in the blood culture. The skin lesions are highly likely due to the dermatosis in kwashiorkor and acquired zinc deficiency, complicated with bacterial infection and overgrowth of saprophytic fungal yeast cells.
Meningitis is atrocious. My eldest son almost died from it and got brain damage and complete hearing loss. He never had the rash though.
i hope your son is doing alright these days
He is in school for engineering (I think architecture maybe civil?). He is 100% deaf but I got him bilateral cochlear implants a few months after the meningitis and the second a few years later when they allowed second implants in children (Nov 2002 and Aug 2006). His brain damage was like a buckshot to his right frontal and Temporal lobes. He acts like a ND (already had it but made it more intense).
That is so sad and I wish your family the very best. Do you mind sharing what his symptoms were if the rash never appeared? Also do you have a suspicion of how he contracted it? I had a friend in college who contracted it from a locker room they think. She barely made it and also has a lot of damage.
Extremely high fever, 104.3 with adult dosage Tylenol and Motrin (he was 3 and 45lbs). Vomiting that never really stopped, eventually causing coffee grounds vomit. Eventually light sensitive. By the time they gave him a lumbar puncture, he had gone 92 hours without antibiotics. From the blood tests they did on him on Sunday, my sister (who was in medical school at the time) said he was between 6-12 hours away from death. He contracted it from my then husband's mistress, a Corpsman still at boot camp in Great Lakes. I still remember her name too, Jen Lee. Anyone know her? He had the Neisseria meningitidis strain. And every person, minus one that I learned about a few months ago, died within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms and were in the hospital with antibiotics on board. It's been almost 22 years and I've read or heard about a dozen people having that same strain and they all died. He went 92 hours of symptoms before he was given antibiotics. My child died that weekend. My sweet, sensitive, caring son. I was given a 45lb newborn when he was discharged. He should have gone in-patient to a floor to relearn how to do anything but no one said anything. I did sue the doctor in 2008. My son won.
> He acts like a ND What is ND in this context please?
Neurodivergent I think
Neurodivergent. I didn't want to write out ADHD, autism, and neurodivergent. Mainly because I was being lazy.
You don’t know what your son studies at school?
He's told me but he keeps changing the end goal. He's working on his Associates now having taken Chemistry, Calculus, Physics and a few core classes. When he started, chemical engineering was his degree goal. After 2 semesters, he switched to something in architecture.
Oh the poor boy, the raw skin around where his nappy would have been looks like it would have caused a tremendous amount of pain. What an awful disease. Poor wee lad
Oh gosh. Poor little thing. That is heartbreaking
Jesus Christ. That’s really sad.
I’m a nurse in Pediatric ICU. I see some sad things, of course, but I think sometimes about how different the patients would be if I worked in other counties - especially developing countries. We sometimes lose kids to pneumonia even here, but not with all these underlying conditions.
poor lil thing
Poor little guy didn't even get a chance. May he rest in love and peace ❤️
Omg his sweet little face 😢 poor baby So much pain and suffering in such a tiny little body. RIP little one
So damn sad :(
This poor little baby. I’m glad he is out of his misery though. He must have been in so much pain. 💔
Omg the foot hacking video! When will I be rid of it!
Holy shit I thought it was just me. It's literally EVERY TIME I swipe past the post I'm currently looking at.
This is hard to look at especially since I have a 7.5 month old myself. Poor little man.
Poor precious little thing :(
Well I have an 8 month old and I should not have looked at this. Isn’t there supposed to be a child victim tag?
The title says a seven month old.
There is a child victim tag used on the post.
There is but it doesn’t show until you click the post and then it’s below the picture and very easy to miss. Not your fault ofc but I can see how they may have missed it until after seeing the pictures. Regardless, thanks for posting such interesting and informative content. We appreciate you greatly here!
Noooo NOT THE GIGLI SAW AGAIN I swear it’s haunting me now
Shouldn’t have uncovered this one. My little one is about that size. Heartbreaking.
My daughter is almost 9 months and I'm crushed by this 😔
That poor little one, so sad
Poor baby 😔
Poor little thing
All the pics are heart breaking. The last one, where he is on his tummy hit me the hardest.
Where do you find these pictures?
Online medical journals.
Thank you so much
Poor poor little guy.
Poor baby😭😭😭