Daycare workers charged with giving melatonin-laced gummy bears to toddlers – IOTW Report

Daycare workers charged with giving melatonin-laced gummy bears to toddlers

CBS: CHICAGO — Three daycare workers who allegedly gave gummy bears that were laced with melatonin to a group of 2-year-old children to calm them down for nap time have been arrested, CBS Chicago reports. Police say the workers — identified as 32-year-old Kristen Lauletta, 19-year-old Jessica Heyse and 25-year-old Ashley Helfenbein — each face two counts of child endangerment and two counts of battery.

 

A manager at the Kiddie Junction Daycare Center told police one of the teachers had been distributing the laced gummy bears without authorization from parents.

“Allegedly, this was done in an effort to calm them down before nap time,” police said in a statement Monday.   more

20 Comments on Daycare workers charged with giving melatonin-laced gummy bears to toddlers

  1. My how things have changed. My teachers wouldn’t dare slip us illicit substances.

    However, my 3rd grade teacher was quite fond of ‘drinking’ Listerine. Kept a fresh bottle locked in the file cabinet. Come to think of it, she’d get quite sleepy after she ‘gargled’.

  2. I have seven grandchildren that don’t like to sleep. I totally understand why they did it. I’m not getting into right or wrong, but I don’t see how it’s criminal.

  3. Since when did melatonin become a dangerous substance?
    It’s an over the counter substance and considered a dietary supplement.
    The entire Internet is acting like they were being given OxyContin.
    Not what I would have done, but I’d never be a daycare worker either.
    Charging them with a crime is idiotic.

    If the kids aren’t tired at nap time then maybe they shouldn’t have to take a nap?
    Let them play outside, they will sleep when they are tired.

  4. Day care workers don’t have any business giving kids anything without the parents OK. I’d say that doing so is at least approaching a criminal offense, probably crossing the threshold for it. What if melatonin doesn’t have the desired affect, try something a little stronger?

  5. Back in the 90s when my daughter was little, I ran a licensed, state-inspected home daycare for kids age 2 and under, and I just went straight for the chloroform when the kids got rowdy.

    Okay, not really. But I understand the temptation.

  6. @Joe6Pak & Plain Jane — Thank you! Many of the comments on this thread are concerning. NO ONE has a right to give a child any kind of drug or nutritional supplement without the parent’s consent. Ever. Common sense is in very short supply, but common sense would tell most of us that we don’t know what might harm a baby or toddler. I wouldn’t want a daycare worker to give my child even a vitamin without my say so.

    Here’s a pretty good write up by a pediatrician about this non-regulated supplement and children: https://drcraigcanapari.com/should-my-child-take-melatonin-a-guide-for-parents/

    For many parents it simply boils down to keeping a good schedule of sleep and pre-sleep routines in place for their kids. And it wouldn’t hurt the parents to practice them, too. Most two year-olds have no problem taking naps — usually twice a day — if they are allowed to get tired.

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