Concerned that their 10-month-old son was underweight, a couple decided to review the CCTV footage in his room — only to discover that their maid had allegedly been drugging the infant.
The man, surnamed Lim, told Shin Min Daily News recently that he had hired his helper, surnamed Lu, from Myanmar last year to take care of his son, who was only three months old then.
All was going well for the family until in December when the 47-year-old chauffeur checked his home's CCTV footage, which showed Lu allegedly treating their son roughly.
"There are cameras in my son's room, the living room and in the kitchen. My wife and I have to work, sometimes we check the footage to see what our son is doing. We also occasionally look at the older footage," Lim told the Chinese daily.
On Dec 12 at about 3.44am, Lim said that his son was having trouble sleeping. Awoken by his crying, Lu woke up and coaxed him back to sleep. However, a closer look at the footage showed that she had allegedly hit him in the head.
Lim questioned Lu the next day, and reminded her to be gentle with the boy. He even told her to prioritise taking care of him over household chores.
Two months later, Lim discovered that Lu had allegedly mistreated the boy again, dragging him by the arm from one end of the crib to the other.
Possible physical abuse aside, Lim also realised that their son hadn't been putting on weight since March this year, and his weight was stagnant at 7.4kg.
"In May, I adjusted the angle of the CCTV, and I realised she was adding pills [into my son's milk]."
Lim explained that Lu would retrieve the pills from a drawer when she was about to feed the infant.
After shaking the milk bottle and pacing around the room, she'd then hide in a corner of the room to allegedly sneak the pills into his bottle.
Although the baby's blood test results came back normal, Lim is concerned as he's smaller than other infants his age. He's also worried that the pills might have affected his son's brain development.
Police Called In
On May 12, Lim confronted Lu about the pills, but the latter allegedly refused to come clean until the police were called in.
Lim said that Lu eventually admitted to the police that she had been adding Panadol into the boy's milk, and had done so on a few occasions.
She also fed the baby a pill from Myanmar, which she claimed would improve his appetite.
"I don't know why she would do this to my child, my heart hurts and I can't forgive her," said Lim's wife.
Lu was taken away by the police and arrangements have been made for her to stay at her agency, the couple said.
The police also confirmed with Shin Min that they have been alerted to the incident, and are investigating.
Shin Min also spoke with the child's mother, who revealed that she allegedly found hundreds of pills in their maid's drawer last August.
"In addition to Panadol, there were other pills such as cold medicine, they came in stacks."
Lim added that he was aware of Lu's stash, but assumed they were for her personal use.
As both of them are working, the Lims have since hired a new maid to take care of their son.
This article was first published on AsiaOne and republished on theAsianparent with permission.