Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hi..I have today received a death cert for a baby whose cause of death was marasmus ....she died just 2 months old in 1907 ...underneath the word mirasmus is written 14 days...I have looked up this illness and it seems to be malnutrition.... I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about this illness? Would it mean the family had no means of feeding her or perhaps the mother((my grandmother)) didnt get enough food whilst she was pregnant?

Makes you feel so sad.

Thanks Ann

Maybe the mother didn't have enough milk and the baby could not/would not take milk from a bottle. The other possibility would the child had an underlying unknown (of the time illness) and the food it ate didn't give it what was needed if you see what I mean.

Hilary
Ed Officer

Ann.

There could be many reasons (as Ed said), amongst them would be Poor Health of the Mother.

Education Officer wrote:Maybe the mother didn't have enough milk and the baby could not/would not take milk from a bottle. The other possibility would the child had an underlying unknown (of the time illness) and the food it ate didn't give it what was needed if you see what I mean.

Hilary
Ed Officer

I do and I suppose we will never know ..

Ann

Ann.

Finding the Family on the 1901 & 1911 Census may shed some light on their situation & Health?

Pegasus wrote:Ann.

Finding the Family on the 1901 & 1911 Census may shed some light on their situation & Health?

The parents didnt marry until 1906 baby born 1907 in Dyffryd and from my previous posts I have lost them up until 1914 when the second child was born ((he also died within a few months)) in Liverpool. 3 children where born 1919/1921 ((my mother)) and 1924 all where healthy and lived long.

I have spent many hours trying to trace them in the 1911 without success...even our good friend Mary A had a go... no luck
Regards Ann

Ann.

a very sad story, sounds like You have just about searched everything.

Maybe you will do what most of us end up doing (with at least one line), and put this on file for future refference?

You never know what other sources will become available over the next few years!

Pegasus wrote:Ann.

a very sad story, sounds like You have just about searched everything.

Maybe you will do what most of us end up doing (with at least one line), and put this on file for future refference?

You never know what other sources will become available over the next few years!

I will put this one on the on the back burner for a while.

Ann...

Marasmus is a severe protein deficiency that can be caused by many things. the most common cause in the late 1800 and early 1900's was cronic diareah and poor nutrition, early weaning from the breast to solids or bottle feeding in non sterile bottles. in essence the body begins to feed off itself to the point of starvation. today we would use IV's to put nutrients into the child. this condition still exists in 3rd world countries and would have been a common death in slum areas of big cities where sanitation was bad. hope this helps

Hi Daisycakes
It must have taken the poor little soul 14days to die.
If the doctor wrote this he must have seen her at the beginning.
No treatment back then.
You will have seen the disease in African children with the pot belly.

God bless her.

Tina

Marasmus was given on my grandfather's sisters death certificate, again only a month or two old. Within the space of two years from 1875 my infamous Margaret Anne Lunt (nee Kent) had married at age 30, had the first child, buried her husband then had her second child only to lose her. The letters of Administration for her husband's estate weren't finalised until eight years later and I often wonder whether they didn't have much to eat which would have caused the baby's demise.

Margaret Anne later started working as a wet nurse, so I imagine she was given better food and the milk was useful for some other woman's baby.

Makes me sad too.

Hi..Sue,Tina and Mary..Its just so sad all this stuff we find on death certs..and I really thought malnutrition was a third world disease...it must have been so hard for mothers to care for their children in those days...... to not have enough to feed them doesnt bare thinking about.

Thank you girls for your input Ann

On much lighter note see my next post

My G Grandmothers sister died from Marasmus in 1868 age 2. The family disappear from all records in the 1870s and then yurn up on the 1881 census in various workhouses and industrial schools. So I can only suppose that they were destitute and unable to feed a possibly already sickly child adequately.
They were living in the courts before they went missing and I assume people living like this would easily be missed off records.
So sad to think of but it does make me grateful for the progess that has been made.