Four New Hampshire daycare employees allegedly spiked children’s food with the sleep supplement melatonin and were arrested on Thursday.
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.
Melatonin is a sleep aid supplement that is sold over the counter. But the long-term impacts of melatonin on children are not widely known.
Furthermore, there have been several reports of children being overdosed with melatonin in recent years. About 7% of emergency department visits between 2012 and 2021 were for children who had accidentally ingested melatonin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a health warning for melatonin use around kids and adolescents, warning against the lack of US Food and Drug Administration oversight for the sleep aid.
The issue is that you are paying for the daycare’s rent, wages, utilities, and food. That’s expensive now. Daycares don’t make a ton of money unless you pay more than $1000 per month. With 30 kids, that would pay for $5000 in rent and 4 people working for $75K (taxes and benefits included). That doesn’t even include food.
Any cheaper and they are going to have to cut costs somewhere. If you have 2 kids, it can be cheaper to just have a caretaker visit your house. You are already paying for the mortgage and food.