Boozed Up Baby: Chinese Infant Accidentally Given Baijiu Hard Liquor By Nurse

A 7-day-old baby in Guangzhou, China, the capital of southern Guangdong province, was rushed to intensive care after a hospital nurse accidentally gave the newborn baijiu, a high-proof Chinese liquor.

Last week, an on-duty nurse was preparing to feed the baby some milk and used a bottle of the clear liqud that was on a table to dilute the baby formula powder. The liquid, which she mistook for water, turned out to be a popular Chinese hard liquor made of rice called baijiu.

Local newspaper Southern Metro Daily reports that the baby managed to drink the baijiu-milk-formula mixture before she began vomiting as her face turned red. The baby was then rushed to intensive care where she remained for two days before being discharged from the hospital. Doctors said that the baby will not likely suffer from any permanent damage.

The Nanfang, a south China community news blog, also reports that the child’s father is insistent on finding who is responsible. “Although it hasn’t yet been confirmed exactly which nurse was responsible, the baby’s father, Mr. Chen, demanded that heads [will] roll,” the newspaper wrote. “I fear my daughter will suffer long-term brain damage,” Chen said.

Many netizens caught wind of the story and have many questions regarding the story, many of whom are curious as to what the high-proof liquor, known to be a favorite of Chinese officials, was doing in a hospital in the first place. “A cup of baijiu just sitting there? That’s abnormal,” one user on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, wrote.

The Nanfang also noted other opinions on Weibo. “One citizen claimed that the smell of rice wine [baijiu] is so strong that this was either done deliberately or done while drunk. Another suggested that the parents forgot to bribe the hospital when the baby was born.”

The unnamed nurse has since been suspended while an investigation into the events is underway.