NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — A New Britain woman has been charged after her baby was hospitalized for five days for being 'extremely malnourished.'
Vera Newman, 23, was charged with cruelty to persons.
In the arrest warrant, police said her baby was hospitalized in September 2022 after failing to gain weight. Police said Newman also did not attend a number of pediatricians appointments prior to the hospitalization.
A Department of Children and Families social worker had been assigned to the case when Newman was having problems finding housing. The social worker told police that Newman had introduced rice to the baby's diet and was told that rice was not an appropriate food substitute for the child at that age and that the baby was not being fed frequently enough.
DCF made the decision to have the child admitted and treated at Connecticut Children's Medical Center where they found that there were no medical reasons for the child not to gain weight and that the baby had been "nutritionally neglected."
Newman told police that she had been feeding the child regularly. She said she had not been to the doctor's appointments due to transportation issues.
Doug Stewart is the Senior Digital Content Producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dstewart@fox61.com.
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