Parents put a lot of trust in their daycare providers. These people are the ones caring for their kids when mom and dad can't, and that's not something that should be taken lightly. The expectation is that the people in charge of the daycare will be providing a safe and comforting environment for every child they look after.
But one "fun center" in Missoula, Montana has had to shut down its social media after it came to light that a child had been severely bitten and bruised while in their care...and no one came to help her.
Tracy Blinov and her husband received a call from Busy Hands Fun Center, which is "a premium drop in hourly child care fun center," letting them know that their seven-month-old daughter Eliana had been bitten by another child.
"My initial reaction was very heartbroken, but I understand kids are sometimes kids," Tracey said. "I had no idea the of the severity of it, initially. They made it sound like it was just one bite mark."
But it was much, much worse.
When Tracy showed up at the daycare, her daughter's face was covered in at least eight bite marks. The young mother was completely horrified, and demanded to know how her daughter could be so injured without anyone stepping in.
The daycare claimed they acted as soon as they biting occurred, but the video footage revealed a different truth. In fact, Eliana was bitten by a two-year-old child for a almost a minute and a half before an attendant came over to check on the screaming baby.
"There's no sound but you can see her legs kicking and flailing in distress," Tracy posted on Facebook. "One staff was out of sight in another part of the building, the closest staff member was on her phone supposedly clocking in via an app and it's not until she finished doing that she actually walked over to pull the toddler off of our daughter and to address her distressed cries."
Tracy was perplexed that no one was around to help her little girl.
I don't get it. I never will. Who let's this kind of thing happen? I Let Eliana go to Busy Hands, and in less than 2 hours both sides of her face have been severely bitten and scratched by another child. I'm utterly perplexed 😞 Not sure I can ever let her out of my sight again. Sweet baby sleep in my arms forever, I'm never letting you go
The bites on Eliana's face were so bad, she had to go on antibiotics.
"Last night she was evaluated by a doctor and is on antibiotics as a precaution for the bite wound," the upset mom wrote on Facebook. "Reports have been filed with Child Family services and the Missoula police department."
Thankfully, Eliana did not seem to have any lasting damage from the attack.
"She's in much better spirits today," Tracy said a few days after the incident. "I'm happy to say the bruising and swelling is coming down a little, it's amazing how resilient babies are. So blown away by the support from everybody."
The daycare faced an extreme amount of backlash for the incident, especially after the video footage showed that no one was around to help Eliana. Busy Hands has since had to shut down their Facebook page, but their owner said that if they had been aware of the child's biting history, she wouldn't have been allowed at the center.
"This toddler that came in was a new customer and she neglected to tell us that the child was a biter and neglected to tell us that the week before she had been kicked out of [another daycare] for biting a child," said the owner. "If that would have been told to us, we could have said "˜No, we can't take her.' "
Busy Hands said they would increase their ratio of attendants to children, and at the time of the incident, no charges had been filed.
Regardless of whether or not the daycare center knew about the child's biting history, it doesn't excuse workers not doing anything to stop the attack for 90 seconds.
[H/T: ABC News]
