Two plagues of smallpox and cholera threatened the children and the statistics show the 442 babies under the age of five died.  The sisters were almost crushed with despair and frustration.  They were working shifts around the clock and accepting more and more children into their home because there was no place for them to go.  Between 1881 and 1882, 6,645 children under the age of five died in the City of Chicago. 

Between 1881 and 1896, St. Vincent's cared for more than 7,000 children and provided meals and lodging for 500 poor mothers and their infants.

During the depression years it was not uncommon for the bell to ring in the middle of the night and see a blue robed nun in a white starched cap open the door to an abandoned baby wrapped in a newspaper with a note attached.  The note most often indicated a plea to care for him or her, and how "she had to do it."  Sometimes a teenage girl would tearfully tell of the baby that would be coming.

In the 1960's, Sister Anthony Prugger was in charge of Social Services and Adoption.  She worked very hard to get the babies placed.  Times were changing.  Children were either abandoned or taken away from their mothers.  In 1964, the Department of Children and Family Services was legislated.  It was suppose to be restricted to underserved areas of the state and co-op services with the private sectors of Illinois.  The police were notified not to send any more babies to St. Vincent's but to send the children to the DCFS office at 11th and Seeley.  The state would no longer pay for dependent babies at St. Vincent's.

The writing was on the wall.  St. Vincent's was destined to close.  In March 1968, Catholic Charities stopped accepting new children for foster home care because of increasing costs and lack of money from the state.