Dad Accused Of Not Feeding Baby Gets Trial

UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa.,None — A Unity Township father accused of not feeding his 8-month-old son in order to save money will go to trial.

Police said Timothy McAtee withheld formula from his son to save money. They said he also squeezed the child too hard and picked him up by one leg many times, causing the baby to suffer several broken bones.

According to police, the abuse happened while the child's mother was at work.

"After the x-rays and all the tests and they said it looked like child abuse. I believed Tim when he said it wasn't me, it wasn't me," said the child's mother Chrissy Barkley.

McAtee's mother told Channel 11 News she realizes her son was in the wrong, but she said Barkley is the one responsible for starving the baby.

The woman said she took plenty of food over to the house, saying she doesn't know how this could have happened.

"This baby was fed Jello water for like two weeks. This baby was fed watered down two-percent milk. He was given formula that wasn't nearly up to strength," Darlene Banner, McAtte's mother said.

Family members said they had no idea what was going on inside the home.

"He's gaining weight and he's looking good," said the child's other grandmother, Jamie Gunter. "He's crawling around. We noticed lumps on his ribs and didn't know what it was. When they did the X-rays that revealed the fractures and that's what the lumps were from, the bones fusing together."

Gunter said her daughter is upset and inconsolable about the entire situation. She said she's glad the baby is alive.

"I told her to be glad it was caught now because some day she might have come home from work and he might have been lying there dead," Gunter said.

Police said after doctors examined the baby, they discovered that he had not gained any weight in four months. The baby was 15 pounds at four months and the same weight again at 8 months old.

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