4-Month-Old Dies After Mom Tapes Pacifier to His Mouth
Bonnie Desmond, 19, has been charged with manslaughter in the death of her 4-month-old son. Bonnie called 911 on Monday saying the baby, Noah James Peterson, was unconscious, but paramedics say Noah had been dead for 8 hours at that point.
Bonnie admitted that she had taped the boy's pacifier to his mouth to keep it from falling out but had removed it before calling 911. Bail has been set at $500,000.
"The only thing I can think of is I taped the pacifier to keep it from falling out. I didn't know it would hurt him, or I wouldn't have done that," said Bonnie, who faces a jail term of 6 and a half to 8 and a half years.
are always going to be quite ethically orientated. one could argue that she is genuinely stupid and the loss of her kid is punishment enough. 8 years is too steep i think.
see where she thought it would be ok, she only taped the mouth, but the nose was free, right? at some point free parenting classes need to be offered to those who have not had kids so stupid mistakes like this dont happen again. and on that note, my daughter id almost a year and a half old, and naver been taped ;-)
none of you have ever been a 19 year old girl with a new baby...most people, especially that age, dont realize babies dont breath soley through their noses, they breath alot through their mouths...i was once a 19 year old girl with a new baby and i did some things that people would say should be common sense, unfortunately, babies dont come with instruction booklets
that is my point. i have never been a 19 year old female, however i think free lessons should be available to parents who wish to take them, since babies dont come with user manuals
I agree with you completely. you can't blame the mother without knowing more about the situation. Maybe the poor girl was raped and decided to keep the baby on her own. The source article says she lived with her fiance but it doesn't indicate if the child was his. Maybe we should blame Bonnie's parents because they didn't teach her enough? Come on people give her a break.
The death penalty? What is it with Americans and the urge to kill every single person who commits a crime?
I was once an 18 year old with a baby and when you are new and young AND no one has faith in you, common sense isn't so common. She obviously assumed babies are able to breathe from their noses for extended periods of time as adults can.
you seem to take pride in flaunting your stupidity and ignorance.
the earth is being ruined by human overpopulation. yes, we do need to get rid of unfit human beings. (to partially restore the evolution of the human species.)
Attacking those who've shared their experiences here is uncalled for, because they've said nothing stupid. Real faces need to be put to these stories, lest people conjure up outlandish, baby-killing villains and call for blood.
Babies are fragile things, and simple things can kill them. Since simple things are allowed to have babies, that sometimes happens. If you want to direct your misanthropy towards making it necessary for one to earn a license to breed, that would be productive. Killing people for mistakes like this is not.
i am a 19 year old girl with a new baby, and am not stupid or ignorant. i know of much older parents doing things alot dumber, even cruel. however i would NEVER tape anything to my babies mouth.either way i couldnt imagine the pain this girl must be feeling. @ landers overpopulation has nothing to do with this, it was an ignorant mistake that ended in tragedy, she lost her baby. dont be such a judgmental prick.
I'm sorry but maybe after seeing what stupid, stupid things parents do to children I have little pity for these people that can take parent classes free. The local health department offers these classes and anyone going to a OB/GYN gets information about it, especially younger mothers.
I was a young mother also and I took a class even though I had been around children all my young life. I learned things I would never have thought about like how certain medicines and poisons could look like candy. Taping a infants mouth shut for any reason is negligent and she deserves the charges against her.
P.S. Valk don't staple the mouth shut or the Pepsi tube cant be inserted :-p
No..no we really don't Stupidity is thinking you have the right to put anyone to death. Especially for taping a pacifier to a baby's mouth, which yes, is negligent, dumb, immature and horrific, but it doesn't mean she set out to kill her son. It was a series of unfortunate circumstances and it's these stories that make make me wish there was a mandatory parenting class for all soon-to-be-parents.
The earth is over-populated, but killing off people that you or whoever is in charge feels needs to be killed off is asinine. And pretty disgusting.
I think you're confused, it's the pepsi tube that would cruel/unusual, not the coke tube. I'll have to check but I'm pretty sure that administering pepsi to a baby or any other helpless and/or restrained person goes against the Geneva Conventions, several UN resolutions and the laws of at least 10 countries....:P
I wonder how many times people have called you a "judgemental prick", as you're obviously giving a repeat performance of the ones others gave you.
The unfit 19 year old mother has been charged with manslaughter. (I guess you'd call the DA a "judgemental prick"?) A judge / jury is going to decide on both guilt and punishment. (you'd use the "judgemental prick" label again?)
LOL! Your stupidity is beyond clowning.
By the way, learn to read properly. I didn't say overpopulation had anything to do with "it". As for "pain", it's something ALL 1st degree murderers can feel toward their own lost ones, I guarantee you.
You definitely could use a few more years of high school education, if you can manage.
quote: << ... you can't blame the mother without knowing more about the situation. Maybe the poor girl was raped and decided to keep the baby on her own ...>>
maybe ... maybe ... maybe.
maybe your IQ would get a big boost if you got a new monkey brain transplant.
@ladiedragonfli & aladywhoknows Babies are obligatory nose breathers.<---period. Until 4-5 months, they breathe solely through their nose unless crying or stuffed up. Even once they hit 4-5 months (as in this child's case) they don't FORGET how to breathe through their nose, they just learn how to breathe through their mouth. Look:
"The newborn is what is known as an "obligate nose breather," meaning it must breathe through its nose because its oral airway is not yet developed enough to allow for frequent mouth breathing. In fact, almost the only time an infant does not breathe through its nose is when crying." http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ "The newborn infant is an obligate nose breather and must breathe through the nose." http://en.wikipedia.org/ "She is at an age until about 4-5 months where she is an obligate nose breather. She has to breath through her nose, and if it is blocked, she has a difficult time breathing. She can't use her mouth effectively to breath until about 4-5 months." http://en.allexperts.com/ Anyway, my point is, I find it hard to believe the baby died of suffocation related to the taped pacifier.
"She is at an age until about 4-5 months where she is an obligate nose breather."
"her 4 month old son."
The baby was crying, she put the dummy in his mouth, he spat it out and cried some more, she got angry, taped it in, the crying terrified baby suffocated.
"She is at an age until about 4-5 months where she is an obligate nose breather."
I a quote from an outside source that I included to show that babies are in fact nose breathers, I was not refering to the child in this case as a female.
"The baby was crying, she put the dummy in his mouth, he spat it out and cried some more, she got angry, taped it in, the crying terrified baby suffocated."
See, the problem with that is that if a child can't breathe, or holds his/her breath for long enough, they will pass out causing normal breathing to resume. Therefore, if the child was crying and wasn't getting enough air from around the pacifier, he would have passed out, and resumed breathing through his nose. It's just too suspicious to me.
Unfortunately, you are in a den with majority of smart asses. You will never win.
Calling her names and think of her stupid, idiot etc etc, is just too sad to read.
This mother should be consoled, she has already punished herself beyond comprehension, sending her to jail is calous and looking for closure, more so,from the public, than reality.
NO one here at SN, nor the prosecutors, who are going to remember this 1 week from now.
This was a case of wrong judgement and since babies dont come with Manuals on how to! this case should be treated with caution and not punish the mother.
To those that are saying oh she's only 19 and babies are hard work she didn't know blah blah. That's bull. I'm 17 and I know you're not supposed to tape a pacifier to a childs mouth. I agree when they say tie her tubes.
YOU PEOPLE DISGUST ME!!! You have no idea what this family is going through. They do have friends and the media quite literally twisted the truth to made a story, as for Davestruth, she was not raped, her fiance is the father of the baby, they are now married, and she DID NOT TAPE HIS MOUTH SHUT!! She used a small piece of scotch tape to hold the pacifier to his cheek because he was teething and so when he dropped the pacifier he could reach it to put it back in his mouth by himself. It did not firmy secure it to his face as is implied by the media, and to this day 8-19-2007 there still has not been a confirmed cause of death. The medical examiner can't even say it wasn't just crappy timing and that he died of SIDS. I can only say that the people that have posted here saying she deserves the death penalty need to step back and think twice about what they are saying. They DO NOT know what happened, or the hell this family is going through. Think about the father, he left for work that morning and got a phone call that his child had died. Then the media and nosy a--holes like yourselves continue to make his life worse!! Imagine if you couldn't leave your home or turn on the TV without being reminded that your child was dead. Noah was the light of his life, he was totally and completely devoted to him. SO WAS BONNIE!! Accidents happen and this time it had a tragic ending, but what gives you the right to judge someone you don't know, over a situation you know NOTHING ABOUT!! Talk about self rightous pricks!!
Erm, ok... "She is at an age until about 4-5 months where she is an obligate nose breather."
"her 4 month old son."
The baby was crying, she put the dummy in his mouth, he spat it out and cried some more, she got angry, taped it in, the crying terrified baby suffocated.
by: Gogevandire
HE WAS NOT CRYING!! He was teething and liked to chew on his pacifier. it was the middle of the night, and he kept dropping it, she used a small piece of scotch tape to secure it to his cheek, NOT ALL THE WAY ACROSS HIS FACE AS IS IMPLIED BY THE MEDIA!! She was not angry, there was NO MALICIOUS INTENT!! I don't know where you got your information but it's WRONG! i will agree that she needed some guidance in a more effective way to do that, but as stated babies are nose breathers. The pacifier DID NOT suffocate him. And as I stated previously the medical examiner can't even find a cause of death!! IF he had suffocated it would have been clear, and there wouldn't be any question, he just died, most likely SIDS and the only reason the Prosecutor is even still saying she had anything to do with his death is because she told them she thought she killed him. They have NO PROOF!! I thought the constitution guaranteed innocent until PROVEN guilty.
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