Mother and father plead for sources to maintain infants secure from rodents

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare … You go into the nursery and find your baby in his crib, covered in blood and lying next to a rat.

Single mother Larrissa Booth has worked and lived for two years on four acres of land surrounded by sugar cane farms in Murwillumbah on the north coast of NSW.

She knows these feelings only too well as she lives in the middle of a mouse plague with her older son Flint, 5, and 15-month-old Theodore.

Not only mice but also rats have increased significantly in the area.

Mrs. Booth had just finished sleep school in Brisbane with Theodore, then five months old, when he began to cry in his crib the second night after they returned.

“At the time we were told to let him scream for a few minutes and then go in and check on him,” she said.

“The screams got really bad and I thought, ‘I’ll go in and look for him,’ and walked in and there was blood all over the place.

“When I picked it up, there was a huge rat right there. I could not believe it.

“There was blood everywhere, all over his clothes.

Ms. Booth fears that one of her children will be bitten again, despite her best efforts to seal the room. Photo: Delivered / Larrissa Booth

“Unfortunately I was alone. So I had to put him in the car seat and drive to the neighbors and the blood kept coming out and in a panic I made the neighbors come with me and we [went] to the hospital.”

Ms. Booth said hospital staff were initially suspicious.

“They cleaned the wound and you could definitely see four cuts from the teeth, two in each spot,” she said.

“It just went over his eyebrow and then onto his forehead.

“He had to take antibiotics, they had to be cleaned thoroughly, and we had to go upstairs a couple of times a week to make sure the wound was actually healing properly.

“They just said we were very lucky that we actually had his needles, tetanus syringes, and his last vaccination, which was good.

Theodore’s scars from the ordeal. Photo: Delivered / Larrissa Booth

“It didn’t actually get into the eye socket… otherwise the chances of infection would be much greater.

“He slept in bed with me for a long time, which didn’t help his sleep schedule, but I felt a lot safer knowing he was here with me because I never caught the rat.

“Only now do I wait a few seconds before I go back in and look [when he cries] but I’m making sure his room is pretty much sealed now.

“We even provided Theos windows with silicone – I didn’t take any chances.”

Ms. Booth said she wished she had been given information or access to resources about babies and rodents at birth.

“I hope the government or something can get an article out, and the hospitals, especially in country towns, could even make it a little more talked about,” she said.

“Especially when you get your newborn packages and the like.

“I know it’s not beautiful to read and imagine, but at least it’s there and you have the knowledge.”

NSW Farmers Association President James Jackson said there had been several reports from farmers in the past six months of increased rat numbers across NSW.

Expect during a plague

Kristy Rose will give birth to her baby boy on June 22nd.

She lives with her partner, three children, and hundreds, if not thousands, of mice on an old farm in Rouchel, New South Wales’ Hunter region.

“If you leave a pacifier on the kitchen bench or … on the coffee table, you know a mouse will touch it,” she said.

Where mice are most concentrated. Image: MouseAlert

“You know it will happen when you have a new baby, and it’s even more frightening because you don’t know what germs they are going to leave behind.”

Ms. Rose has spent countless hours cleaning and plugging steel wool in vents and cracks.

“You still wake up and you open the door to the kitchen and there are mice – you have all of your food in plastic cups,” she said.

“If you pull out underwear from the drawer or a T-shirt for your child and a mouse runs up your arm, that’s disgusting.”

Ms. Rose said that rats and mice are often seen in her garden during the daytime. Photo: Delivered / Kristy Rose

Ms. Rose says she spent a lot of money even though she already had important things.

“I had to buy a bassinet with a zipper mosquito net over it,” she said.

“Everything is packed away and I only have the bassinet out and everything in tubs – even the baby things are in the tubs.

“I even have the diapers in buckets because the mice get in through the diapers, which in itself is quite annoying.”

Ms. Rose said she had no idea how to protect her newborn once she got it home.

“I’ve got messages from people asking me if I want to stay with them when I have the baby, but how can I stay with someone when you have a farm and animals to look after?”

She asks the state government to provide more information and targeted psychiatric services.

“For example, what to look out for if my child gets sick and I think it is a cold or a stomach disease, regardless of whether it is caused by the mice or the like or not,” said Ms. Rose.

“I think there needs to be more advice for mothers where they can talk about it because when you’re isolated on a farm and have young children, you feel alone.

Role of the health system

The ABC reached out to NSW Health for comment on the department’s actions to help mothers who raise babies in areas with mice and rats.

In response, the department encouraged people to learn more about infections transmitted by rodents on their website.

“Infections can spread through direct contact with infected mice or through contact with soil, food or water contaminated by infected mice,” a spokesman said.

The spokesman said the best way to protect newborns is to keep rodenticides out of reach in a sealed container, seal gaps and food, remove messy leftover food immediately, wash hands before preparing food or milk, and make sure that the baby’s skin is covered with long sleeves. Pants and socks.

Mice and rats help themselves in sheds and feed in pantries. Photo: ABC New England Northwest / Donal Sheil

NSW Health said that if anyone is concerned that a rodent has scratched or bitten a baby, they should wash the area with soap and water, dry the area, apply antibiotic cream, apply a clean bandage, and seek medical advice.

“When the wound heals, watch for signs of infection,” said a spokesman.

“In a newborn, watch out for skin that is warm to the touch, for redness or swelling, for fevers above 37.5 ° C, or for unusual screams.

“If these signs occur, see a doctor immediately.”

NSW Health did not respond to suggestions that hospitals include relevant information in baby packs, nor whether they were working on projects to support mothers in this situation.

Close enough is good enough

Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia CEO Julie Borninkhof said it was important that mothers in difficulty turn to services already available such as the national helpline [1300 726 306].

“The tools and resources that people are engaging with don’t have to be aimed at a mouse plague,” she said.

“You just need to focus on the anxiety, stress, and depression that can result from this overwhelming experience.

“Close enough is good enough in times like these,” said Borninkhof.

“As long as you don’t hurt your baby and have basic needs, you know the baby will thrive.”

-ABC