BAKER COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida mother is facing multiple charges of child neglect after investigators said her child was found severely underweight.
The child, who is 8 months old, was brought to a Jacksonville hospital by his grandmother after she noticed that the child was severely underweight, WJAX reported.
Doctors told police the 8-month-old child had the average weight of a 2-month-old due to starvation, and the baby also had a fractured skull, WJAX reported.
In a Facebook post announcing the charges against Haylee Kent, Baker County sheriff’s deputies said that “Kent told detectives she felt the way her child needed to be fed was sometimes annoying, so she just opted not to do so.”
In the post, detectives said they established the infant had been neglected from the day he was born: “This neglect consisted of a lack of necessary medical attention, malnourishment, and failure to provide a safe home environment.”
Haylee Kent, the child’s mother, faces charges of child neglect with great bodily harm, according to court records.
Deputies told WJAX that the baby is recovering and has been placed into foster care.