Mom issues warning as baby contracts life-threatening illness after common Halloween activity
Halloween is the time of year when families participate in age-old traditions and pass them on to their young children. But a mom’s attempt at spreading festive joy came with a dire price.
Pumpkin picking, apple bobbing, and many other fruits and vegetables are commonplace around this time of year.
Whether they are carved, eaten or used as decorations, there’s no shortage of natural goods in October.
But one North Texas mom wants to warn parents about a risk she never expected to see when she allowed her baby to partake in a simple daycare activity to celebrate the changing seasons.
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Briana Robertson revealed that the incident took place one year ago and involved a group activity.
The mom revealed, per CBS that her daughter was just four months at the time and began to show alarming symptoms two days later.
"The teacher scooped out the insides of the pumpkin and had the pumpkin seeds and guts in a ziplock bag, and my daughter was only 4 months old, so there wasn't much she could do other than touch the bag," Briana told the outlet.
But 48 hours later, the mom says her baby was left vomiting, with severe diarrhea and she developed a high fever.
Additionally, she became dehydrated and unresponsive.
"Her symptoms started at 6:45 that morning. By 12 that day, she was being admitted," said Briana, as she added: "And the fact that they didn't really have answers at first was scary because you just see your four-month-old lying there, severely dehydrated, purple, and there's nothing that anybody can do until they know how to treat her."
After she was tested, Briana said her daughter was later diagnosed with salmonella, which is ‘a common bacterial disease that affects the intestinal tract’, per the Mayo Clinic.
The website adds that the illness 'typically live in animal and human intestines and are shed through stool' and is usually contracted by those exposed to contaminated food or water.
Because her baby wasn’t eating solids at the time, Briana revealed her child’s doctor determined that it was likely caused by exposure to the pumpkin at her daycare.
"I was shocked. Like, I was completely shocked," she said. "I never would have thought that she could have gotten salmonella from a pumpkin."
Despite there being several ways fruit and vegetables can become contaminated with the illness, Briana said her doctor admitted it’s not all that common.
"They actually said that they've never had an infant or child come in with a severe case of salmonella due to pumpkins," she said.
Although, salmonella isn’t rare in itself, and there was a recent outbreak in May that saw dozens fall ill all over the nation.
However, because pumpkin carving is such a family-friendly tradition to participate in, no matter the age, Briana wants to warn others.
She revealed she was told to wash the outside of pumpkins before cutting into them, wash hands before and after touching them and then to sanitize tools and surfaces that come into contact with them to minimize the risk.
Britt Jones