A Canberra baby neglected by his parents was so dehydrated that when authorities removed him it was three days before he could cry tears, court documents revealed on Friday.
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Child protection services took emergency action on Christmas Eve in 2015 and removed the one-year-old boy from his parents in Higgins.
He was at significant risk of illness or death.
The father, 45, and mother, 23, who cannot be named because it would identify the boy, pleaded guilty in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday to causing grievous bodily harm by negligent or unlawful act or omission.
"The care given to [the boy] ... was grossly deficient and caused serious harm to his physical state," documents handed to the court for the pleas said.
It is understood to be the first case in Canberra where neglect has caused a child grievous bodily harm.
The boy was born premature in January 2015 and the parents were referred to a parenting program.
But after a few weeks the parents' interaction with the program lapsed, and they did not return phone calls and messages.
In December 2016, one day before removing the boy from his parent's care, child protection authorities visited the home and noticed the boy was pale, his eyes sunken, he "just stared" when they tried to engage with him, he did not make a sound and was floppy to hold.
The next day, Christmas Eve, authorities returned to the home and asked to see the boy's bedroom.
The father at first refused to let them inside, then asked for time to put the dogs away.
He returned to the door about 5 or ten minutes later.
The authorities saw the room was clean and the cot had sheets and blankets tucked in.
They also saw dirty sheets on the floor and smelled a "strong odour of stale urine" in the room.
The doors to all the other rooms were closed, the documents say, while in the kitchen there was a large amount of rubbish and rubbish bags on the floor.
Authorities then removed the baby boy from his parent's care.
At the hospital, the boy showed no emotion and was "malodorous" though appeared clean.
He had dry skin on his arms, trunk and legs, and active, thickened dermatitis to his knees, toes and the back of his head.
He had an ulcer on the roof of his mouth and poor body tone, could not sit unsupported and had difficulty putting weight on his legs.
The boy's physical and mental development was delayed.
He could roll from back to front but was still developing his roll from front to back.
He was unable to crawl or push himself forward on his stomach.
When offered formula milk he drank two bottles "voraciously".
He weighed 5.83kg, significantly underweight where the average for a 10-month-old boy, age adjusted for prematurity, is more than 9kgs.
"He was unable to produce saliva and tears due to his dehydration," the documents say.
Testing results suggested the boy had global development delay that "warranted urgent further assessment and therapy in all developmental domains".
A doctor concluded after three months of continued assessment that the boy demonstrated signs of "acute and chronic neglect of his nutritional, developmental, medical and emotional needs".
The boy has since made some recovery and at a June 2016 examination a doctor said he continued to thrive while in foster care.
The man and woman will be sentenced at a later date.
