FAIRWAY, KAN -
A Johnson County home day care was shut down when the operator forgot about a child in her care, officials said on Friday.
The Kansas Department of Health ordered the Little Friends Day Care in Fairway shut down temporarily after inspectors found more infants there than are permitted.
Little Friends is a "registered" and not a "licensed" day care, meaning that it doesn't get routine inspections from the health department unless there is a complaint. The complaint about having six infants under the age of 10 months led to the inspection. The day care is only allowed to have three infants under the age of 18 months.
Inspectors say that what they found in one of the back rooms of the homes was scary.
"One of the infants was found by my surveyor in the back bedroom with the door closed, inside a car seat, with three blankets over the child strapped in the carseat, totally covered up with 3 blankets," said Eldonna Chesnut of the Johnson County Department of Health. "So that's one of the scariest things."
Lynde Ann Price, owner of Little Friends, says that was not the case, and that the child's parents asked her to keep her sitting up in a car seat.
"She was sitting upright," said Price. "She had bronchitis, and her parents had asked that she sit up in a car seat. But she was not covered with blankets."
But Chesnut says that her inspectors reported that Price told them that she "forgot the child was in the room."
"When you have this child totally covered, you're decreasing the amount of oxygen you're getting to them and we know that's one of the risk factors for SIDS," said Chesnut.
Inspectors also found infants in rooms with the doors completely shut, another violation of state regulations.
Price says that she loves the children, and takes very good care of them.
"It was just having too many," said Price. "I was over-capacitated and that was the problem."
Price will have to attend a hearing with state officials before she would be allowed to reopen.
The Kansas Department of Health ordered the Little Friends Day Care in Fairway shut down temporarily after inspectors found more infants there than are permitted.
Little Friends is a "registered" and not a "licensed" day care, meaning that it doesn't get routine inspections from the health department unless there is a complaint. The complaint about having six infants under the age of 10 months led to the inspection. The day care is only allowed to have three infants under the age of 18 months.
Inspectors say that what they found in one of the back rooms of the homes was scary.
"One of the infants was found by my surveyor in the back bedroom with the door closed, inside a car seat, with three blankets over the child strapped in the carseat, totally covered up with 3 blankets," said Eldonna Chesnut of the Johnson County Department of Health. "So that's one of the scariest things."
Lynde Ann Price, owner of Little Friends, says that was not the case, and that the child's parents asked her to keep her sitting up in a car seat.
"She was sitting upright," said Price. "She had bronchitis, and her parents had asked that she sit up in a car seat. But she was not covered with blankets."
But Chesnut says that her inspectors reported that Price told them that she "forgot the child was in the room."
"When you have this child totally covered, you're decreasing the amount of oxygen you're getting to them and we know that's one of the risk factors for SIDS," said Chesnut.
Inspectors also found infants in rooms with the doors completely shut, another violation of state regulations.
Price says that she loves the children, and takes very good care of them.
"It was just having too many," said Price. "I was over-capacitated and that was the problem."
Price will have to attend a hearing with state officials before she would be allowed to reopen.
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