SHAWNEE, Kan. – A Shawnee home daycare has been shut down while police investigate what happened to a six-month-old boy.
The child's parents say he was fine when they dropped him off and anything but OK when they picked him up, according to WDAF.
“It was really hard. The kids are my whole life. My family is my whole world,” said Glen Braun’s mother, Sarah Braun.
Braun's world changed Thursday when she picked up her daughter and son from a Shawnee home daycare. She said they were happy and healthy when she dropped them off at 8 a.m.
But when she picked them up: “The daycare lady was holding Glen, and my son had puke all over himself and she said he has been throwing up,” Braun said. “He threw up all over his Pack ‘n Play, all over another kid.”
After getting 6-month-old Glen home and cleaned up, his parents realized their son was probably more than simply sick.
“As soon as I started holding him, he vomited all over me. He had a red mark on his face,” the child’s father Brett Braun said.
There were red marks that his parents say look like a hand print on the infant's head. Sarah Braun said she confronted the daycare owner about the marks on her son’s head and face.
“She made excuses, saying maybe she was out of the room and another kid did this,” Sarah Braun said.
When Glen continued throwing up overnight, a visit to the pediatrician Friday morning sent them to Children’s Mercy Hospital.
That's where doctors shared shocking news.
“The head C.T. showed that he had a brain bleed. From there they told us there were signs of abuse. They got the police involved and child services,” Brett Braun said. “I was absolutely devastated. I mean he is 6 months old. I don`t know how anyone could ever hit him or do anything to him.”
Shawnee police are investigating this as a battery with personal weapons, indicating the child was hit with hands or feet.
On Monday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment ordered an emergency suspension of the home daycare's license.
No one answered the door when WDAF went by to talk to the daycare owner.
“I don't really know what to say. We did all the proper steps,” Brett Braun said. “We went on the state website. We interviewed her. We did everything we should. I don't know the right answer.”
The owner of the Shawnee home daycare has not been charged with a crime; therefore, WDAF is not naming her or her daycare at this time.
Police say they expect to present their evidence to the Johnson County District Attorney by the end of the week. It will be up to that office to decide if criminal charges will be filed.
