Infant dies after eating rice, drinking chocolate milk in Belize

Belize: In a shocking development, an infant is dead after eating rice and drinking a bottle of chocolate milk. The incident took place on July 24 in Georgetown Village, Stann Creek District, Belize. 

The 21-year-old mother reported the police that at around 5 am on the morning of Thursday she left home to go to work when the tragedy took place.  

According to the reports, the mother left the 16 old month child in the care of a babysitter who is aged 18. The babysitter, who was a neighbour, allegedly fed the child rice and gave her a bottle of chocolate before putting her to bed.  

It is said that two hours later she found the child motionless in her own vomit following which she called the mother who rushed back home around 4 pm only to find the baby dead.  

Upon receiving the report of the tragic incident, the police launched an extensive investigation to determine the exact circumstances surrounding this incident. It is not yet clear what actually led to the death of the child and police said that a postmortem will be conducted to find the same.  

The incident has sent shockwaves across the community with locals taking to Facebook to express their condolences over the untimely death of the child. “Mother 21 leave for work at that hour, she wasn't out partying. 18yr old sitter, fed the child, she didn't leave her to starve. This is a traumatic experience for both these young women, this will be hard to overcome. Prayers for both,” said a local named A’Royal Dias while another said, “An 18 month old baby can eat rice, especially if it's brown rice, the carbs in rice help baby sleep, it's not the rice that killed that baby it's something else. They should check the chocolate milk maybe the child develops a form of lactose intolerance towards the milk, or if just a case of infant death.”