Four people have been arrested and charged after they were caught dosing children with melatonin at an illegal New Hampshire daycare.
The substance is often used to enhance sleep.
The Manchester Police Juvenile Division said the arrests came after a lengthy investigation.
In a statement on Facebook, Manchester police said:
“In November 2023, detectives received a report alleging unsafe practices going on in an in-home daycare at 316 Amory Street.
“Through the investigation, police determined that the children’s food was being sprinkled with melatonin without their parent’s knowledge or consent.”
The arrests stem from a November 2023 investigation at a daycare in Manchester, about 30 minutes from the state capital of Concord.
Authorities were called to investigate a report of “unsafe practices going on” at the daycare in question, ABC News reported.
The report cites a press release from the Manchester police department.
After a six-month investigation, police discovered that children had been furtively dosed with melatonin.
Officers arrested the daycare owner, 52-year-old Sally Dreckmann, along with three of her employees: Traci Innie, 51; Kaitlin Filardo and Jessica Foster, who are both 23.
After the investigation, police said they had determined:
“The children’s food was being sprinkled with melatonin without their parent’s knowledge or consent.”
Dreckmann and her three colleagues each face 10 charges of endangering children, the New York Daily News reported.
It was unclear how many children at the daycare had been receiving melatonin or for how long.
Melatonin is a sleep aid supplement that is sold over the counter.
However, the long-term impacts of melatonin on children are not widely known.
Furthermore, there have been several reports of children being overdosed on melatonin in recent years.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about 7% of emergency department visits between 2012 and 2021 were for children who had accidentally ingested melatonin.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a health warning for melatonin use around kids and adolescents.
The organization warns against the lack of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight for the sleep aid.
Police also discovered that Dreckmann’s daycare was not licensed, WBZ News reported.
It is legal to operate an unlicensed daycare facility in New Hampshire as long as no more than three children at a time are watched there.
Local neighbors told WBZ that they were unaware that a daycare had been operating in their community.
“I’m a grandparent so I know,” Gary Boucher said.
“That’s outrageous – it really is.
“If it was my child, I’d be extremely upset.”
Boucher also said that he hoped authorities would go beyond the arrests at the daycare and shut down the facility.
In a statement, Manchester Police Department spokeswoman Heather Hamel said:
“Somebody who’d been inside the building had heard about the practices and tipped us off to that.”
“We also got some anonymous tips as well through our crime line,” Hamel added, according to WMUR.
“This is an over-the-counter drug that can be given as a sleep aid, but for it to be given to children without the knowledge or consent of the parents, it’s very concerning,” she said, according to WHDH-TV.
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