A 2-month-old baby is recovering after authorities said her father added bleach to her baby formula.
Ocala Police Department Sgt. Michael Summer said Carron Washington, 20, fed Caelynn Washington bleach because he heard it could help with the baby’s congestion.
According to a police report, the child’s mother went into the child’s room after she heard her crying, and the child spit up a clear liquid that smelled like bleach. She called 911, and the child was taken to the hospital.
A hospital employee called police.
“You smell the baby bottle and it smells like complete bleach. And the parents aren’t giving us a good story about how it got in there,” the caller told a 911 dispatcher.
Police said Carron Washington broke down crying at the police station and admitted to putting bleach in the child’s bottle, saying he heard from a friend in school that it works as a medical cure. He said he mixed less than a cap-full of bleach with less than two ounces of formula.
“This would probably be the dumbest decision I ever made in my life, and I regret it 110 percent,” he said.
“I was like the most worried ever. I mean, I have seen family members killed and friends get killed, but I was never as much scared as seeing my daughter and how she was,” said Washington.
His sister called it a horrible mistake.
“He would never do that. He loved that baby. She only responds to him. She doesn’t respond to anyone like that,” said Chianti Washington.
The baby was originally taken to Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala but was moved to Shands Medical Center in Gainesville, where she was listed in stable condition.
Medical staff said they noticed the baby’s vomit smelled like bleach, and the bottle of baby formula also smelled the same way.
Washington faces charges of aggravated child abuse.
“I would hope that no one would ever intentionally try to hurt a child upon the face of this earth. Now, what he was trying to do is something I cannot answer,” said Ocala police Lt. Billy Woods.
Washington was held on $25,000 bond.
The child should be released in two days.
Greg Fox, WESH reporting