My first thought is that even if the mother is following "doctor's orders" by feeding her disabled child infant formula, any normal person would know that if the child is continuously losing weight, the kid needs some different form of assisted alimentation, and should be taken to the hospital.
My second thought is that this mom is not "any normal person," this mom is immobilized by depression.
I saw that in person when I was helping staff a women's shelter many years ago: young mother with two little girls, staying at a hotel in Erie, PA, so depressed she often couldn't even get out of bed to go to the toilet, hotel room reeking of urine. The two little girls (maybe ages 4 and 7?) went down to the bar on a daily basis to beg for snacks, the 7-year-old acting as the "little mother" to make sure the younger one got enough. Police FINALLY come to check out what's happening, discover this appalling situation. They put the mom and girls with us (shelter) until they could get through the county and court paperwork to have the mom psychiatrically evaluated and the kids put in stable foster care.
I don't know how it ended up. We just had them for a couple of days, and lost contact after they left our shelter.
So my guess might be the mom was overwhelmed and severely depressed, and the Dept of Children's Services (or the equivalent) were neither prompt nor effective.
Lord have mercy. 40x.
That's a very good point. This situation involved a large group of people all living in a motel room. We really can't ask comfortable, well-off people, "Does this seem normal to you?" Nothing about the situation is the standard case.