Indy daycare under investigation for giving kids melatonin

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis daycare is under investigation after reportedly giving children sleeping supplements without permission from their parents.

A parent FOX59/CBS4 spoke with said she received a sudden call from the Department of Child Services a few weeks ago only to learn her two boys were being given melatonin before naptime unbeknownst to her. And now she said she is worried her children were not the only ones.

“It’s just shocking,” parent Haley Yost said. “It’s upsetting.”

Yost said her 6-year-old and 4-year-old sons have been going to Leaps and Bounds Christian Daycare for four and a half years.

“It was great,” she described. “We really, really liked it.”

But that quickly changed when she got an unexpected call from DCS. The agency let her know her two sons were named in a report alleging her kids were being given melatonin at naptime without her consent.

Yost said she did not believe it at first.

“And it was like our world just crashed for a moment,” she said. “Because these people that we trusted with our children who we really liked and respected, were just like how could you do this to us? My husband and I, we just felt betrayed.”

Yost said DCS officials told her a handful of other families were also involved. She said DCS told her it sounded like it had been happening for a while, possibly up to a year and a half, but there was not a definitive timeframe.

“They’re giving him things we didn’t approve of,” she said. “And if they’re doing that, what else could he have been getting?”

While DCS told FOX59/CBS4 it cannot comment on specific cases for confidentiality reasons, the daycare’s owner confirms it is being investigated by the agency.

Yost said her children were reportedly being given five milligrams of melatonin, which FOX59/CBS4 learned is five times the recommended daily dose for children, according to melatonin containers sold at local pharmacies.

Yost said her oldest son has autism and occasionally has sleeping issues.

“We were actually giving him melatonin occasionally in the evenings when he was having trouble sleeping,” she said. “So unbeknownst to us, he was getting it twice.”

The daycare told FOX59/CBS4 that it is cooperating with the investigation. Meanwhile, Yost said she has since removed her kids from Leaps and Bounds.

“We never got an apology,” she said. “We never were told anything by the owner of the daycare, what would be happening to reprimand her or fix the situation. Nothing. So that was really concerning that she’s still there and nothing happened.”

Leaps and Bounds told FOX59/CBS4 that the director, who was involved in this case, is now on administrative duties. The daycare said she is no longer supervising children as the investigation continues.

FOX59/CBS4 also reached out to the Family and Social Service Administration’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning. The agency said Leaps and Bounds receive federal Child Care Development Fund vouchers.

The agency said it plans to decertify the daycare as an approved CCDF-approved program. The agency also said parents who receive CCDF will have 21 days after decertification to find alternate childcare. Parents can search for eligible programs here .

Records also show critical health and safety violations, including from a recent inspection earlier this week.

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