KILLER BABY FOOD
BY RAFAEL HEDRICK

Enfalac Photo
Provided by Women and The Economy
Weblink

“Dad, that is horrible.” Phoebe looked at me so sad.  I didn’t know if I would be able to continue with what would come next.

“Well, Phoebe, that isn’t the end of it.  I just told you about how Grandpa died and that right before he died Grandma had a baby girl named Katie.  Well, obviously Grandma was very distraught after Grandpa died.  She felt responsible.  She also knew I must have been pretty lonely after all this and she bought me a dog.  I took real good care of that dog and named him Ben.  I fed Ben and walked him and he was my new best friend. 

“Meanwhile, Grandma had Katie to worry about.  She loved Katie and clung to her.  One day, when Katie was about six months old, your Grandma had just fed her when the doorbell rang.  Grandma put Katie down on the floor to play like she had so many times.  Katie, however, was just learning how to role around.  She rolled over and over.  I heard her laughing.  Ben and I were in my room. 

“A little later I heard her screaming.  She was crying like someone was hurting her.  Your Grandma rushed her to the hospital immediately.  When the doctor saw her he was sure she had appendicitis and took her into an examining room to confirm it with an ultrasound.  But, the minute he touched her stomach for the ultrasound, Katie died.  Just like that she was gone.  Obviously the doctor wanted an autopsy because he couldn’t explain this strange death.  The autopsy revealed that Katie had died because her stomach exploded.  We couldn’t believe our family was the victim of another stomach explosion and neither could the doctors.  They ran several tests and the results astounded the medical community.  Your Aunt Katie had died from a mixture of her formula, Enfalac, and penalathelyne phosphate.  Penalathelyne phosphate is found in dog food and her formula warned not to mix the two.  When Grandma put her down to roll around on the floor Katie started chewing on some of Ben’s dog food.  She became sick right away and the mixture caused her stomach to explode.”

“Dad, I don’t know if I can hear any more.  This is too horrible.”  Phoebe looked almost panicked.

“I know, Phoebe. It is horrible, but I have just one more story, and then you will know the whole truth.”

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story was the result of another story at, of course, www.snopes.com.  It’s kind of sad, but don’t worry, the people at snopes found out it wasn’t true.  I changed the story to fit with my Storybook.  The dog (the one whose dog food was eaten) wasn’t actually given a name at snopes, so I named him.  I thought that after such a distressing time, any parent would try to buy their kid’s love and forgiveness, and a dog is always a great gift for any boy.  The other portion of the story about the mother feeding the baby and letting her lie on the floor was part of the original story.  I just changed it slightly to fit my Storybook.  I think that this urban legend has remained popular is because people, especially women, always have fears about babies getting hurt.  This urban legend perpetuates that fear completely.

Return to Storybook