3-month-old baby boy turns purple after being fed wrongly prepared drink by misguided parents who thought it would be more nutritious
2-MIN READ2-MINAlice Yanin ShanghaiPublished: 9:00am, 20 Jun 2026A three-month-old infant in China suffering from poisoning had to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) after his parents fed him with baby milk formula prepared with vegetable juice.
The baby boy was rushed to Zhongshan Women and Children’s Hospital in southern Guangdong province when his body turned purple, his mouth turned purplish-blue and he was short of breath, Zonglan News reported.
His parents said the symptoms appeared shortly after the baby consumed milk.
They added that they had prepared the formula milk with vegetable juice, instead of water, because they thought the vegetable juice was more nutritious than pure water.
Doctors at the hospital diagnosed that the infant had been poisoned with nitrite.
After receiving medical treatment for two days, the baby was discharged from the hospital in mid-June, the report said.
According to doctors, when vegetables are boiled for a long time, the resultant juice contains large amounts of nitrites. If parents use this juice to prepare milk, the baby will suffer.
