Seven-month-old baby dies after being left out on freezing balcony

A 40-year-old woman left her youngest child alone in the balcony as she slept indoors for five-hours. She woke up, prepared food for her other children, and remembered to check on the forgotten child on the balcony. By the time she checked on the seven-month-old baby, he had turned blue. Initial reports claimed that the child died of hypothermia. The woman claims that she had left the child outside to get fresh air to soothe his teething. She also claims that it was not the cold that killed the child.

While under house-arrest, Anna Sh (name changed), is under criminal investigation for the death of her seven-month-old son. The resident of the Khabarovsk region in Russia put the child in his pram in the covered balcony of the home.

The balcony was covered with glass but was unheated. The woman claims that when the police arrived, the temperature in the balcony was -4C. However, in the region, the temperature at that time was around -20C.

Initial reports stated that the mother admitted she had left the child on the balcony and accidentally fallen asleep through the night. When she woke up, she prepared food for the other children before checking on the infant. She found the child had turned blue and was unresponsive.

The woman has changed the narrative of the incident by claiming that she had taken precautions to ensure that the child was warm. The child was supposedly wrapped in a padded blanket four times, swaddled in a blanket made of camel wool and was wearing a sheep-skin coat. According to the woman, the child did not have a fever so he did not freeze to death.

Investigators reported that the child was found to be underweight. Social services removed three other children from the woman's care and placed them with other members of the family in the same region.

The Sun reported that the temperature at night in the region dips to around -20C and the baby might have been subjected to far lower temperatures than the mother suggests.