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Mother Kaycee Oxendine sends her three-month-old son to Carrboro Early School in Carrboro, North Carolina for daycare services. Oxendine herself works at the same school as a pre-kindergarten teacher.
This past Friday, Oxendine recalls her son’s teacher approaching her to tell her that her son was constipated. The teacher was wondering if she could breastfeed Oxendine’s son, to help him recover from his discomfort.
Oxendine was horrified. She said no, twice. “She said that she had a son and did I want her to put my child to her breast and breastfeed?” Oxendine recounted. "And I said no, that's nasty. We don't do things like that.”
But just moments after Oxendine left the room, her son’s teacher picked the child up again, adjusted her shirt, and began to breastfeed him. She only stopped when another woman in the room rose to leave.
Although Oxendine wasn’t there to witness the incident, she caught sight of it on security footage and recorded it on her cell phone for evidence.
After the incident, Oxendine was furious. “As a mom, you've taken something from me, because I wasn't able to defend my child," she explained. "I wasn't there."
Daren Council, the daycare director, wasn’t just approached by Oxendine about the incident. Another employee at the daycare reported the incident to him separately and Council immediately fired the worker who breastfed Oxendine’s son. She usually worked at an early school nearby, was licensed, and had been working in childcare services for over a decade.
For Oxendine, firing the woman isn’t enough. She wants to now press criminal charges against the woman.
Oxendine’s son was born premature and is actually lactose intolerant. On Friday night, after he’d been breastfed by the daycare worker, he became ill and started vomiting. Oxendine had to take her son to the hospital for treatment.
"To me, a criminal act was committed against him," Oxendine stated. "Not only did you put your breast to my son, you also made my son sick because he's lactose intolerant. So you've put something in his body that his body can't digest."
Council has done everything in his power to bring justice to Oxendine and her son, but can now do little more, save from provide moral support. Carrboro Early School has consistently received superior classifications by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in the past, but investigators are now looking more closely at the situation in light of this incident.
No charges have been filed yet, but Oxendine’s determination persists.
You can watch the full news clip of the incident here.
