Parents’ ordeal as allergy-hit baby’s blotchy face leads to police inquiry
A COUPLE have told of their ordeal after being wrongly accused of abusing their newborn son when he was in fact suffering from a milk allergy.
Marc Sutherland, 33, was arrested and he and partner Natalie Whyte were separated from baby Callan and quizzed by 22 people as part of a police probe.
During the harrowing ordeal, Miss Whyte was even asked if her seven-year- old daughter, Lucy, could have hurt the baby.
The couple were originally told their son’s ‘screaming fits’ – which left him red and with blotch marks – were a sign of colic. But a health visitor raised concerns about Callan’s welfare after his mother told her about a particularly bad episode he had last month.
Miss Whyte, 28, said Callan had to endure countless scans and tests to ‘prove we hadn’t broken his bones’.
‘We were interviewed by 22 different people,’ she added. ‘We were placed under tremendous scrutiny and told we couldn’t be around either of our children unsupervised. Lucy was investigated and her school was contacted for comment on what kind of parents we were.
‘I was forced into leaving my newborn overnight. Our hearts were in a million pieces – we were absolutely devastated.’
It was only after the couple sought a second opinion from another doctor that an intolerance to dairy products was diagnosed. Miss Whyte, from Auchleven, Aberdeenshire, said: ‘We were constantly told it was colic. But I knew it wasn’t just that – every feed, he would be agitated and scream the house down.
‘I had taken Lucy out and on my return Marc told me how Callan had really struggled. He had been pushing and straining and had gone bright red and purple. The left side of his face was red and slightly swollen.
‘The next day, his face still had some strange red and purplish marks on it and I was very worried, as any parent would be.’
She took Callan to a doctor and was told once again that it
‘Our hearts were in a million pieces’
was colic and the marks were from the straining.
The next week, Miss Whyte told her health visitor about Callan’s ‘fit’ and was immediately met with ‘accusatory questions’. She said: ‘She asked if Lucy could have hurt her brother or if I felt safe leaving the baby alone with my husband.’
That evening the family were asked to attend Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where Mr Sutherland was told he was being investigated for child abuse and they would be arrested if they tried to leave.
Miss Whyte described the following five days as ‘harrowing’ as she was separated from Callan overnight. Callan also had to have blood tests, eye examinations, CT scans and two fullbody X-rays.
‘I had to stand back and watch three nurses pin every little bone on his body down as he shrieked,’ she said. ‘All to prove we hadn’t broken his bones.’
Mr Sutherland spent four hours in a police station. He was placed in the cells, arrested, cautioned and questioned – before police said there would be no further action.
The couple have made a formal complaint against the health visitor. Mr Sutherland said: ‘We were put through two months of hell because they didn’t test for his allergies the day we went into the hospital.’
NHS Grampian said: ‘Miss Whyte and her family have raised their concerns directly with us. As this matter is currently under investigation it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.’