New Hampshire employees of day care arrested after six-month investigation and each face 10 charges of endangering children

Four New Hampshire daycare employees allegedly spiked children’s food with the sleep supplement melatonin and were arrested on Thursday.

After a six-month investigation, police discovered that children had been furtively dosed with melatonin. Officers arrested the daycare owner, 52-year-old Sally Dreckmann, along with three of her employees: Traci Innie, 51; Kaitlin Filardo and Jessica Foster, who are both 23.

Melatonin is a sleep aid supplement that is sold over the counter. But the long-term impacts of melatonin on children are not widely known.

Furthermore, there have been several reports of children being overdosed with melatonin in recent years. About 7% of emergency department visits between 2012 and 2021 were for children who had accidentally ingested melatonin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a health warning for melatonin use around kids and adolescents, warning against the lack of US Food and Drug Administration oversight for the sleep aid.

  • @I_Has_A_Hat
    5•6 months ago

    I know we shouldn’t judge based on looks, but if all the adults at the daycare look like meth heads… Maaaaaybe pick a different daycare.

    • @EnderMB
      4•6 months ago

      Finding daycare is a fucking nightmare. Our experience has been:

      • Needing to book daycare a year before the baby is born. Think about that for a second…
      • Available daycare in run-down shitholes, or places undergoing huge renovations. Nothing like watching a dozen kids sleep on the floor in a freshly painted room because their main room has two labourers building new walls.
      • People that are barely in their twenties running entire nurseries, with some people barely out of school that look like they’ve never seen a kid.
      • People that run “nurseries” out of a house that could barely house two people, yet expect 30 kids to be cared for there.
      • Places with spaces, but news stories about illness outbreaks, prior neglect/abuse, etc.

      At this point, I think we’re just going to have to opt for a childminder, because it’s all we can get…

      • @[email protected]
        1•6 months ago

        The issue is that you are paying for the daycare’s rent, wages, utilities, and food. That’s expensive now. Daycares don’t make a ton of money unless you pay more than $1000 per month. With 30 kids, that would pay for $5000 in rent and 4 people working for $75K (taxes and benefits included). That doesn’t even include food.

        Any cheaper and they are going to have to cut costs somewhere. If you have 2 kids, it can be cheaper to just have a caretaker visit your house. You are already paying for the mortgage and food.