Toddler Found Drunk at Daycare Centre

A US daycare worker is facing criminal charges after a toddler in her care was allegedly found intoxicated.

The Frederick News-Post reports the little boy’s mother took him to hospital after she picked him up from a daycare centre run by Doris Marie Ott at her home near Maryland.

According to court documents reported by various media outlets, Ms Ott, 50, had called the woman at around 3:45pm to tell her she was struggling to wake the child from his nap.

Fox5 reports the boy appeared “pale and limp” and fell out of his chair before he was picked up from the facility. His mother reportedly told investigators he was “barely responsive” and smelled of alcohol.

In hospital, doctors allegedly confirmed the boy’s blood alcohol reading was almost three times that of the state’s legal driving limit for adults.

Ms Ott, who has since lost her daycare license, reportedly told detectives at the time she had not served the boy alcohol, nor given him access to it, and was consuming any herself at the time.

Detectives found alcoholic beverages in a basement next to where the daycare service was run, but Ott claimed there was no possibility the child could have accessed the fridge or consumed anything without leaving evidence behind.

However, according to Fox5, the boy’s mother told investigators there had been three previous occasions when her son smelled of alcohol when leaving daycare, but she put the smell down to “sanitiser or baby wipes”.

Ms Ott was arrested and charged with neglect of a minor and reckless endangerment in December, and was released after signing an agreement to appear in court.

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20 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 24 Jan 2023
    12:03 pm
Kinda sounds like she was giving them a drink to make them sleep

- - mom111362 said
  - 17 Mar 2019
    11:38 pm
omg that’s really scary, that poor child

- - Blossom said
  - 10 Feb 2019
    2:14 pm
I hope Ms Ott is never permitted to care for a child in her own home either…..or anywhere else. If the truth be known maybe he was given it previously so he would go to sleep and she didn’t have to care for him as such.

- - rachel1970 said
  - 27 Jan 2019
    4:54 pm
Oh my goodness, how can this happen?

- - mom160421 said
  - 26 Jan 2019
    4:07 pm
In order for the child to drink so much alcohol he must have been out of the childcare worker’s sight for quite some time – very worrying and dangerous.

- - tessie said
  - 25 Jan 2019
    12:18 pm
Adults have died from alcoholic poisoning. So glad Mum took her son straight to hospital. Hope there hasn’t been any permanent damage done to his organs.

- - sars_angelchik said
  - 25 Jan 2019
    7:10 am
That’s disgusting the kid could have died! Glad she’s been arrested and hope there’s no lasting effects on the boy.

- - ella12 said
  - 24 Jan 2019
    11:45 am
I cannot even begin to get my head around this, I am just glad to hear this woman was arrested. The poor little boy and his family, what they had to go through is terrible.

- - rovermum said
  - 24 Jan 2019
    8:57 am
Simply no words. So many questions… but thankfully this little boy did not die of alcohol poisoning.

- - Ellen said
  - 24 Jan 2019
    3:45 am
Wow this is dangerous ! Concerning that alcohol was stored in a basement nearby.

- - mom101628 said
  - 23 Jan 2019
    11:23 pm
Hope our Daycare centres don’t do the same things.

- - curlytops said
  - 23 Jan 2019
    10:44 am
how could something like this happen.

- - mom265671 said
  - 22 Jan 2019
    11:00 pm
Omg this poor child. Lack of care when put in your trust is so scary

- - Mum2archer said
  - 22 Jan 2019
    10:42 pm
Wow. That poor boy. I hope he’s ok. What type of person does that. Glad she was found out

- - rnash02 said
  - 22 Jan 2019
    9:47 pm
Such a scary situation

- - becstalou said
  - 22 Jan 2019
    8:48 pm
This is terrible I hope the boy does not have any lasting damage.

- - BellaB said
  - 22 Jan 2019
    6:39 pm
This would certainly be quite frightening.

- - mom90758 said
  - 22 Jan 2019
    6:16 pm
Oh no. So upsetting. That day care centre looks very untrustable!!

- - ashna9 said
  - 22 Jan 2019
    6:16 pm
I’m sure she won’t be leaving her child there again. Something strange is obviously going on!

- - nealsq said
  - 22 Jan 2019
    4:06 pm
Very scary! It seems over there anyone can get a day care license