An Oklahoma daycare devised a dangerously unique way to keep kids under control throughout the day, making work easier on employees and potentially allowing for the center to take in more kids than they could handle. This worked for a while, until an employee’s conscience caught up with her and caused her to contact authorities about the practice. Now, the woman who runs the business is facing child abuse charges.
According to KTEN news, the reporting employee alleged that the owner of Sue’s Day Care in Durant, Oklahoma, Beverly Sue Stair, had a standing rule in the facility that infants be drugged up at “sleep time” so they would pass out without issue and remain asleep for a better part of the day. Possibly in fear for their jobs, or simply trusting the caregiver without understanding the inherent risk of medicating babies, the employees all followed the directive, administering Benadryl to at least seven infants regularly, until the practice came to light.
The initial employee’s confession opened the flood gates to other Sue’s Day Care employees coming forward about what had been going on behind closed doors at the daycare, validating that giving kids the over-the-counter allergy medicine was commonplace.
When Leslee Meade learned that her little 6-month-old had been one of the victims, she said her heart sank. “What she was doing was messing with everybody’s lives,” Meade said about Sue’s inappropriate actions, medicating children for her own gain. “Had something happened it would have changed everybody’s lives forever.”
Health experts agree that even though the medication isn’t a controlled substance, it should only be used if ordered by a doctor. The draw of the drug is that it’s inexpensive and accessible, and it has a strong side effect of causing drowsiness. But physicians say that in some cases, it could cause a child to stop breathing.
Stair and her employees don’t know all the physical conditions off-hand for each child in their care, even if noted on registration forms. It’s doubtful, in my opinion, that she referred to this paperwork when making the decision to drug the babies to get them to sleep. Benadryl was never meant as a regular sleep aid and it could potentially cause children to eventually rely on it to fall asleep. Healthy sleep habits are something many parents tirelessly work to achieve, and the person they entrusted their kid(s) to didn’t seem to care — her convenience was more important.
Stair’s center has been shut down be the Department of Human Services, while an investigation is underway. While it’s not uncommon for parents to occasionally give their kids a little bit of Benadryl in rare instances when they’re sick, it’s certainly not a decision a caregiver needs to make for someone else’s child. The center’s owner had one job to do that parents pay her dearly for, and she obliterated that trust by being selfish and putting the smallest victims at risk of serious side effects.