Ohio police are investigating after a 7-month-old baby girl was rushed to the hospital with a blood alcohol level three times the legal level for an adult driver.
The mother of the infant told the police she went to work at 9 a.m Sunday, leaving her baby in the care of an aunt.
It was reported that when the mother returned at around 5:30 p.m., WJW reported, she noticed her child was behaving strangely.
Police said the mother brought the child to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at around 7:30 p.m, where physicians reported the baby was limp and unresponsive.
Authorities said a drug panel was performed on the baby and tests showed the child’s system had a high level of alcohol.
Neither the mother nor the aunt said they had any idea how alcohol had entered the baby’s system.
Police have not released anyone’s identity involved in the case and no charges have been filed.
Drunk at Day Care
The incident recalls the case of a Maryland toddler that, according to police documents, had become intoxicated at a day care center.The child’s mother told the police that she picked her son up from the day care and took him to the hospital, where a doctor smelled alcohol on the toddler’s breath.
Frederick County Detective Michael Toste spoke to the mother at the hospital on April 10, 2018, according to the report.
Testing revealed that the boy had a blood alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit for an adult to drive in the state.
After a monthslong investigation, an arrest warrant was issued for Doris Marie Ott, 50, the day care operator. Her license was suspended and eventually revoked after the toddler was found drunk but she has now been charged with neglect of a minor and reckless endangerment.
Ott had run the day care for 18 years before the incident.
Ott said there was no alcohol that the toddler could have accessed at her house and that she was not drinking.
Ott declined to comment but her attorney Michelle Martz said in a statement to Fox: “Mrs. Ott ran a successful day care facility in the Walkersville community for 18 years. She provided a safe environment in her own home, caring deeply for every child entrusted to her care. She has a whole community that stands with her.”
“Mrs. Ott is completely innocent and has been cooperative from the start. Charging Mrs. Ott was wrong. We look forward to attacking this in court,” Martz added.
Baby Bottle Tainted With Alcohol
In another related case, a man in Florida was accused of child neglect after a baby he was looking after drank from a bottle that contained alcohol, authorities said.Joshua Goldofredo Rosado, 27, was charged with two counts of child neglect, according to Gainesville Police.
According to a recently released report, Rosado said to officers that the baby was alone with a 6-year-old girl for about 3 minutes, and she must have put alcohol in the baby’s bottle. He said he took the baby to the hospital after he noticed a rash when the child woke up.
The report, as cited by CBS4, notes, “Therefore, within the 3 minutes he [Rosado] was gone, (the 6-year-old girl) had to locate the box, remove the bottle of liquor that was inside a bag, remove the bottle from the bag, unscrew the liquor bottle, unscrew the top of the baby bottle, add the liquor to the baby bottle, add the formula to the baby bottle, mix/shake the formula, and then give the bottle to the (baby).”
Rosado often leaves the 6-year-old girl alone with the baby, and she regularly feeds and changes the baby, according to the broadcaster.
Rosado denied giving the baby the alcohol himself.
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