Baby died of Inanition

[Gardengirl]

I've just bought one of the £2.50 death registration images from the GRO for a child who died aged 5 months. I was suprised to see the cause of death being given as inanition / exhaustion which Mr Google says is "the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death. The term inanition refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation. Starvation may also be used as a means of torture or execution"

How can that happen to a child? I know it happens - then and still now - but she was the 8th of 9 children and there is nothing to suggest that the family were not able to feed their children.

Any thoughts on what else this might mean?

[Anne in Carlisle]

I have 4 baby death certs which give the cause of death as marasmus, which I think is also a term for malnutrition. Again I'm sure they were looked after to the best of the parents' abilities but of their six children only the first and last survived, the last being my grandfather born in 1872. The parents were both very old for parents, even by present day standards, which made me wonder if the children had some problem from birth. Maybe difficulty in feeding or absorbing food. Something which probably would be known about and treatable nowadays but back then would be called 'failure to thrive'. Perhaps that might be the reason? Things like allergies and syndromes must have been little understood in those days.
Anne

[Gardengirl]

I’m sure you’re right, Anne, but it seems so harsh written like that on the record. What a shame that they couldn’t indicate a cause of the starvation.

[Anne in Carlisle]

The point is, the doctor probably didn't know why the baby starved. It would be true to say that starvation caused the death. Possibly the words inanition and marasmus were used because the parents would not know what they meant. It would be harsh for the doctor to simply put 'starvation' on the certificate because that would imply that the child was simply not cared for.
Anne

[Mary from Italy]

I think Anne's right. I also remember seeing a case where a 2-week-old child died of "marasmus", but she'd been in hospital all her life, so it must have been caused by some kind of disease, not the parents' inability to feed her.

[queenbee]

Starvation on tiny babies doesn't always mean the parents were dirt poor, or (god forbid) cruel. These babies could only be fed via breast feeding and problems with latching, poor milk production (not always due to low diet in the mother), poor quality milk etc could all be a factor. Illness in the mother affecting her milk production for example.

Obviously the rich could hire nurse maids to help so will have had less cases, so the instances in the lower paid classes were higher.