In a shocking case from Tamil Nadu, mercury is being fed to infants, a practice that was supposedly stopped by the locals.

The locals believe that feeding mercury to the infants can clean their intestines.

Last week two cases of mercury ingestion to the infants were reported by The News Minute. Both the babies were admitted to the Thanjavur Medical College. One of them was discharged after seven days of treatment while the second is still in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

An X-ray of the baby’s bloated stomach revealed the presence of mercury in the infant’s body. The doctors at the Thanjavur Medical College’s Pediatric department said that in the most recent cases the elders in the family gave children mercury-laced beetle leaf juice to clear the baby’s intestine suspecting indigestion. However, the swelling increased instead of decreasing.

The doctors are trying out to flush out the chemical out of the infant’s body. Explaining the case, a senior doctor said, “We have tried taking it out using laxatives but it has not moved till yesterday (Wednesday). Now we have administered a rectal washout to the infant, a treatment in which a catheter is inserted into the baby’s body to flush out toxins.”

As per the doctors, there were many such cases as the practice was prevalent but over the years it had decreased. The reason for the practice to bounce back is also the easy availability of mercury. Powdered mercury is easily available at any local medical store by the name of ‘Rasa Podi’.

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