When Marla Demita went to pick up her son, Dean, from a day care center on May 20, 2025, she instantly felt uneasy. Instead of smiling when he saw his mom, 9-month-old Dean was screaming, which was unusual for him. When they got home, the baby’s inconsolable behavior continued, prompting Demita and her husband to take the baby to the emergency room. What they discovered shocked the family.
Demita told Mississippi Today that Dean attended Little Blessings Daycare in Yazoo City, Mississippi, until that fateful day. Dean wasn’t himself at all and she knew something was very wrong. “It’s like he looked straight through me, like he didn’t know who I was,” his mother recalled.
Demita said that on the entire drive from their home to Children’s of Mississippi Hospital in Jackson, Dean screamed. “And I’m not talking about fussy crying. I’m talking about blood curling screams,” she said. “It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”
Doctors administered a drug test that came back positive for methamphetamines. Physicians said Dean ingested the drugs at some point between noon and 4 p.m. that day. Dean was reportedly at Little Blessings during that time. Demita and her husband submitted to drug screenings and both had negative results. After 12 hours in the hospital, the family went home.
In a Facebook post, Demita explained that after leaving the hospital, they went directly to Little Blessings in Yazoo City to confront Lisa Martin, the center’s director.
“That’s where we were told after explaining the situation that ‘if we were blaming the daycare, we can pack his items and remove him from the daycare,'” Demita wrote.
Today, she fears the long-term effects the drug exposure could have on her now 10-month-old baby.
“Not once has the director reached out or offered any explanation. Instead, she has tried turning this around and saying that he got methamphetamine through breast milk. But the funny part is, Dean hasn’t been on breast milk in over a month,” she wrote. “I took the drug test with NO hesitation. CPS, DHS and Yazoo PD have all failed. Another issue has been swept under the rug. It is sickening.”
Per documents obtained by Mississippi Today, Martin spoke to Yazoo City police and officials from the Mississippi Department of Health about the alleged incident. Police reportedly told Martin that drugs could have entered the facility on someone’s shoes, and Martin promised she would be “purchasing shoe coverings for individuals.”
Health department records obtained by the newspaper show accusations of abuse against Little Blessings Daycare in 2023 and 2024.
“They hit children on the hands and butts and grab them very roughly,” a former employee of Little Blessings said in a 2023 complaint.
The health department reportedly fined Little Blessings $50 following baby Dean’s incident. According to Mississippi Today, the agency could not definitively prove he ingested methamphetamines at the center.
Demita hopes one day that Little Blessings will get what she believes its owners deserve. “No parent or family should ever have to experience the heartbreak and pain that we have experienced,” she wrote on Facebook. “I pray justice is served for my child.”
