At the time I read The Girl I thought that part was a bold move. Drinking random creek water will totally do that to you and I liked that he didn't pull his punches just because the character was a girl.

Then I read his other works. I'm pretty sure he's into kids. There's a small benefit of the doubt that it's his version of a dead baby joke and he does it just to fuck with readers, but I'm too jaded to expect he's not dicking children himself.