Baby taken into care over risky ‘treatment’

A baby boy whose father advocates the use of “harmful alternative medication” should be taken into council care, a family court judge has decided.

The man had sold Master Mineral Solution (MMS) as a treatment for cancer and autism, social services staff told Judge Helen Black.

Staff said MMS was a sodium chlorite solution equivalent to industrial-strength bleach. They said the man advocated the use of MMS and his website included “paraphernalia for the administration of such products to babies”.

Social workers said there were concerns that the boy, now aged about eight months, might ingest “harmful alternative medication” either directly or via his mother’s breast milk.

Detail of the case has emerged in a ruling published by the judge following a family court hearing in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Judge Black said Southampton City Council had responsibility for the boy and had asked her to make decisions about the boy’s long-term future. She said the boy’s father was English and his mother Portuguese.

Judge Black said the little boy had been temporarily taken from his parents when he was a few days old over fears including that the boy had not been given appropriate medical attention.

Judge Black said the boy’s parents had not attended family court hearings for a number of months — and had gone to Portugal.