A couple in Indiana is deeply concerned after picking up their 21-month-old son from daycare and discovering he was extremely hungry. The child’s mother, who posts on Reddit under the username Whoreallyknowsbest, shared the experience in r/legaladvice, explaining that she suspects daycare staff may not have been feeding her son and that there is little documentation to prove otherwise. “The response was, ‘Oh, maybe someone forgot to document,’” she wrote—an explanation that did little to reassure her, her partner, or the hundreds of Reddit users who reacted to the post.
Not feeding her son was not the only concern Whoreallyknowsbest raised in her post. She also claimed that it took the daycare three weeks to give her access to the Procare app and provide the door code. On the day she finally gained access, she realized, “There’s no documentation of them giving my 21-month-old anything past 11 am,” even though she did not pick him up until around 5 p.m. According to her, the daycare is supposed to document everything, including when a child refuses to eat.
Another red flag was when staff claimed they had given Whoreallyknowsbest’s husband the door code, even though he was present to directly refute it. Since the daycare’s owners are allegedly new, the mom remarked that the whole transition might be a struggle for them. “But not feeding my child and lying is unacceptable,” she argued.
The Mother Claims She’s Reported the Daycare to the Authorities
Another helpful commenter suggested that the mother report the situation to the Department of Child Services, which she claims she did, so the case is now under investigation. In the end, it would appear the parents do not plan to ever take their son back to that specific daycare; the mother’s reason for bringing it up on Reddit was to receive recommendations on how to report the owners and staff.
As Whoreallyknowsbest and other commenters noted, occasionally forgetting to document a detail can happen—everyone makes mistakes. However, in this case, the daycare not only failed to document that a child had gone unfed, but also allegedly misled the parents about it. That alone was sufficient reason to report the incident.
