One of the first mom hacks you learn is that swaddling babies – wrapping them lightly in a blanket – simulates the snugness of the womb and helps them sleep faster and more soundly. This tip is so crucial that several companies manufacture premade swaddles to save parents the time and energy of perfectly folding those baby blankets.
But once your baby can roll over, the swaddles have to stop. One day care worker may not have known of this danger, and her ignorance cost an 11-month-old baby his life.
On August 30, 2022, Teresa Louise Biswanath, a 46-year-old unlicensed day care worker in Oregon, was caring for five children, The Mirror reported. During nap time, she wrapped the 11-month-old in a swaddle designed for newborns, infants less than 3 months old who could not crawl or roll over. The 11-month-old could do all of those things. When Biswanath initially began the nap time routine, all of the children were in one room together. But eventually, she took him upstairs to a second-floor bedroom.
Biswanath bound the child’s arms in the swaddle and put a pacifier with a six-inch stuffed animal attached in his mouth. Biswanath then placed the 11-month-old face down on the bed, according toThe Mirror.
The child was in the bedroom alone as Biswanath walked in and out of the room. Later, she found the baby blue and unresponsive. She attempted CPR before her husband called an ambulance, KPTV reported. First responders could not revive the child.
Biswanath, who claims to have once worked at a well-known child care center, said she received extensive training about safe sleep practices for infants, per KPTV. She told police that she followed the procedures from her previous training, but the investigation found that she created an unsafe sleep environment.
According to the Oregon Health Authority, safe sleep practices include being present in the room with the sleeping child, removing stuffed toys from the sleeping area, and placing a baby on their back to sleep.
Now, she will spend two years in prison. Biswanath was convicted of criminally negligent homicide. In addition to her prison sentence, the court has barred her from ever operating her own day care again, KPTV reported. Furthermore, after her imprisonment she will serve three years of post-prison supervision and has been forbidden from contacting the victim’s family.
