During the last 54 days of political bickering, the families of some 16 million children worried about having enough food to eat as federal food stamp payments, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, stopped on November 1st. The deal being struck in Congress will offer a reprieve from the hunger pangs through next year, but I need to tell you why this can’t happen again.
I am a neonatologist that cares for critically ill infants. I fight for miracles and often celebrate with exhausted relief for the babies who beat the odds. The pain comes when we don’t always get a reprieve from the suffering. The piercing wails from a mother after I tell her we couldn’t prevent her baby from dying are knife wounds in my heart that can never fully heal.
There is nothing normal or natural about a baby dying. Babies are innocent, vulnerable… and nonpartisan. Saving their lives is the work of my entire career. Neonatologists like me can only do so much. Truthfully, government programs like SNAP and WIC have saved more lives than neonatologists will ever do.
But who speaks up for the babies? In the last few weeks, news media cycles have churned through the impact of the federal government shutdown on farmers, TSA agents, Air Traffic Controllers, and active-duty military working without pay. It was a mother’s plea that pierced through all the political noise for me.
When a mother called into CSPAN and begged House Speaker Mike Johnson to do something about the shutdown, there was no denying the anger, frustration and fear in her voice. Without her husband’s military paycheck, she said, they couldn’t afford the medicines her medically fragile children needed to stay alive. She didn’t ask for a neonatologist. She asked for the government to fund programs like SNAP benefits that children desperately need. Whether you realize it or not, you probably know someone using SNAP to buy infant formula, cereals and other baby foods. Did you know that one out of every five kids across the US relies on these benefits?
It gave me some comfort to know that people stepped up to make a difference. Food banks went into crisis mode and prepared to do as much as possible while political pundits filled airtime blaming each other for this “unprecedented” catastrophe. The babies, however, remained invisible, and I need you to understand what happens when people struggle to feed their babies.
It starts in emergency rooms across the country… Some babies show up having seizures. Healthcare teams run blood tests and discover the babies have dangerously low salt levels. The teams ask more questions and learn that families were diluting infant formula with extra water to make it last. Other babies come in with unexplained bruises and possibly broken bones. Social workers ask more questions and find out the babies were hungry and crying nonstop. A (hungry) frustrated person couldn’t take the crying and screaming anymore and did the unthinkable to babies who were innocent, vulnerable… and nonpartisan.
We cannot repeat the chaos of this shutdown in 2026. While SNAP and WIC benefits are not a cure-all, they are an undeniable bridge to another day for those who might otherwise succumb to the suffering. As a society, we cannot stand by and let a dysfunctional government condemn our babies to suffer — and yes, to die. Yes, it is impossible for one person to end our political divide, and this is why we must come together to demand a functioning and unified government.
Please… Help me speak for the babies.