Day care shut down for allegedly drugging kids with Benadryl

BRYAN COUNTY, OK -- A day care in Oklahoma is now shut down after police say an investigation found workers were drugging children.

The owner and staff of Sue's Day Care in Bryan County are accused of giving infants Benadryl to make them go to sleep. Parents say the discovery answered a lot of questions.

"Until the last month, month and a half, I noticed that he was coming home extremely tired," mother Leslee Meade told KXII-TV. "Then after he'd eat, he'd go to sleep, say 6 o'clock, and wouldn't wake up until 6 the next morning."

Parents had no idea why their children were so sleepy until a former employee went to police.

"An employee who was there and had left stated she had witnessed this," Bryan County Sheriff's Office Detective Jeff Wilson said. "She referred this to the Child Welfare department."

"Their findings were a bottle of Benadryl in the nursery in an unmarked bottle," Meade said.

Doctors told Good Morning America that Benadryl can cause small children to stop breathing. Fortunately in this case, none of the children suffered any serious injury.

Prosecutors are now debating what charges to file. For now, the day care remains closed.