Most parents vigilantly keep medications out of the reach of children. So, understandably, one mom was shocked to learn that her 8-month-old son died of a lethal dose of a popular allergy medication. How did this happen? The child's babysitter allegedly administered him an adult serving of Benadryl … because she wanted the small child to sleep.
Haddix James Mulkey died a completely avoidable death and now his mom, Katie, is sharing their nightmarish experience as a warning for other parents.
This story is horrifying on multiple levels. When you read something like this, your first thought is that the babysitter must've been a teenager who just wanted to get back to social media or watching TV. But this was no high school kid.
The sitter was actually a 43-year-old woman. Lori Conley was arrested last week and charged with child endangerment and murder. At the time of the child's death she reportedly told police that the boy had been fussy and she simply wanted him to sleep. But two adult tablets proved fatal for the tiny tot.
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Sadly, Conley isn't the first person to consider using medication to induce sleep in a child. Many times you'll hear parents admit to giving their son or daughter an over-the-counter drug to help them sleep on a flight or long car ride. You'd hope that if they were doing something like that, they'd at least use the right dosage and the children's version.
Still, drugging a child for a parent's convenience is never, ever a good idea, no matter how tempting it might be. Hopefully, parents who read this will abandon the practice completely.
Losing a child is any parent's worst nightmare. As the family wrote in the little boy's heartbreaking obituary:
In the 8 months we had him, our lives will forever be changed from the joy and love he provided.
Just devastating. But we applaud this mom for being willing to open up in the hopes of saving other kids from the same fate.
Image via iStock.com/ilterriorm