'Scariest night': Mum's distressing warning after toddler 'nearly died' from milk overdose

Anastacia Gencarelli wants to warn other parents about the risk of milk anaemia. Photo / Facebook

A Canadian mother has been left distraught after her toddler nearly died from a milk overdose.

Mia, 2, was drinking more than four bottles of milk a day, when eventually she started feeling lethargic and limp.

Four weeks before being rushed to hospital Anastacia Gencarelli's toddler started "pulling her ears".

Her mum assumed it was an ear infection and took her to the doctor where she received medication.

Mia made a full recovery but she soon deteriorated when she woke up one day feeling "lethargic, sleepy and not wanting to eat".

Gencarelli took Mia back to the doctor but they sent her away with more medication.

One week had passed and little Mia was still in distress.

Gencarelli then tapped into her maternal instincts and made a split decision to take her daughter to hospital.

After arriving at the hospital's emergency department, the family was in the waiting room for less than 10 minutes when a nurse was alerted by the toddler's limp state.

"She comes flying out saying, 'I don't care how long you have all been waiting, that baby comes with me'," she wrote in a Facebook post.

"We didn't do triage, we didn't register, nurse kicked people out of a room for my daughter and as we rush in six nurses and two doctors follow.

"Before I know it they are all working on my little girl attaching heart monitors, blood pressure cuffs, everything you can think.

"They start trying to take blood and they can't, they are trying to put an IV in they can't - it took seven pokes just to get blood out of her. It took four pokes before they made the choice to put the IV into her femoral artery (the part between your leg and crotch) and if this wasn't successful they were going to drill into her leg to her shin bone and implement the IV straight to her marrow.

"At this point I'm in tears - dad is in tears. Blood work comes back on half the tests - she has lost 3/4 of her body's blood (no she had NO external bleeding) and was not making more so at this point we are on edge on why she's not."

Anastacia Gencarelli and her daughter Mia. Photo / Facebook

After receiving the blood results it was revealed she was suffering from a condition known as milk anaemia.

"You have heard of not giving a baby too much water? Well, don't give them too much milk either," she said.

Mia received a full blood transfusion and is now only allowed two bottles or 250ml portions a day.

Gencarelli says Mia's favourite drink was milk and would previously have between four to six bottles a day.

"Cow's milk in excess will actually strip your body of iron - iron is what makes blood. No iron, no blood," she said.

According to Better Health, children less than 2 who consume a high amount of cow's milk are at a high risk of iron deficiency.

It is recommended children aged 1 to 5 limit their consumption of low iron milk such as cow milk, goat and soy.

The signs and symptoms of iron deficiency anaemia may include behavioural problems, repeat infections, loss of appetite, lethargy, breathlessness and increased sweating.

Gencarelli came within days of losing her child and urges mothers to trust their gut instinct saying it could one day save the life of someone else's child.