How Raw Milk Made This Toddler Dangerously Ill
A toddler was hospitalized with a severe E. coli infection linked to the consumption of unpasteurized raw goat milk. The incident highlights the ongoing public health risks associated with raw milk consumption despite state regulations intended to ensure safety.
Why it matters
It underscores the tension between consumer freedom and public health safety, particularly as misinformation about raw milk's benefits spreads on social media.
This story was originally published by ProPublica
Sitting in a pediatric intensive care unit last year, watching a ventilator keep her 17-month-old daughter alive, Emily Marris scoured the contents of her phone for evidence to give to California health and food safety investigators.
She had bought raw goat milk from a farm recommended to her in a Facebook group run by her chiropractor. Marris had hoped the milk, unprocessed and natural, would help with her daughter Brooklyn’s constipation. But doctors now suspected the unpasteurized milk, which hadn’t been heated to kill off pathogens, was the source of the toddler’s severe E. coli infection.
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