A Hoover mom filed a police report after finding out that a staff member at Sugar N Spice Daycare and Kindergarten had apparently given her 4-year-old daughter melatonin, a sleep aid, without her consent, possibly for months.

Averill Perkins now believes that the medication has negatively affected the health of her daughter, as well as the health of a daughter who previously attended the facility. The day care owner disputes her claims. The Jefferson County Department of Human Resources is investigating.

Perkins raced to her daughter’s day care last Thursday after receiving a call from a staff member, who is also a family friend, saying Perkins’ daughter had spit out a pill because she didn’t like the taste of ‘the candy’ she was given.

When the staff member looked at the medication, she realized it was melatonin and asked Perkins whether she’d consented to her child receiving the sleep aid.

Perkins couldn’t believe what she was being told and pulled her daughter out of class to hear what had happened directly from her.

Read more: Learn more about Alabama day care licensing, complaints.

Learn more: Look up Alabama DHR complaints, records about child care centers here.

Perkins’ daughter told her the melatonin was given to her by a staff member who works in the kitchen and sometimes acts as a floater in different classrooms when needed.

“She goes: I get one every day at lunch, it’s for sleep. So she knows what it does to her,” said Perkins. “She started naming off like five different kids in her class who get it…I freaked out of course and I’m thinking there’s no way these other parents know what’s going on.”

Perkins said she immediately called the Hoover Police Department.

According to a police report, the medication that Perkins’ daughter had in her mouth matched a Spring Valley 5 milligram melatonin tablet that Sugar N Spice had on hand for two children whose parents requested they be given the sleep aid. Staff also had a lower-milligram gummy version of melatonin for one of the children.

Perkins said when she got home, she asked her 8-year-old if she’d ever been given something similar when she was at the daycare in 2018.

According to Perkins, her oldest child responded saying, “Oh, those pills with the pink polka dots? I used to get those.”

Perkins now suspects that some of the health problems her children are experiencing or experienced when they were enrolled at Sugar N Spice may be connected to melatonin.

Perkins’ daughter has been enrolled in the day care since August. She said her child has experienced nausea, headaches and sleep issues and emotional changes.

“As far as my 4-year-old goes, she’s been dealing with night terrors since at least February that I remember. She’s been bedwetting, and she has had this aggression, just so aggressive,” she said.

She also said that in 2018 her oldest daughter “basically had like a complete regression for being fully potty trained to all of a sudden having to wear pull ups at night again because she peed herself in the bed.”

According to Children’s Medical Center Dallas, some doses of melatonin can be safe for children with short-term use, but side effects can include headaches, drowsiness, bedwetting, irritability and nausea.The hospital recommends consulting with a pediatrician before giving your child melatonin. They recommend only 1-3 milligrams for preschool aged children.

Perkins posted about her child’s experience in a Facebook post. She said she has since received a number of messages from parents who went to pick up their kids from Sugar N Spice and were told that they too had been given the sleep aid.

DHR confirmed to AL.com that the “Child Care Services Division is aware of the allegations, and our next steps are underway.”

While the agency did not comment further on the investigation, its website lists a substantiated complaint against the day care for administering medication on April 28, one day after Perkins filed a police report. Perkins said a state DHR investigator was present at the day care and took her witness statement on the same day.

A spokesperson said more public information will be available soon.

The owner of Sugar N Spice, Kent Marshall, said the accusations are a lie.

The daycare has been owned by his family since the 1970s. Marshall said this is the first time someone has complained about improper medication.

“This is very, very disturbing and it’s very unfortunate how people can do this to businesses,” Marshall said. “I want to know the truth and I want this to be investigated completely. I will say, I’m a reasonable person, people make mistakes. If one of the children that was supposed to get melatonin spit it out and that other child got it, that’s a potential way that a child could get something. But the timing of it does not make sense.”

There are other complaints listed against the daycare on the DHR website dating back to August 2022, but the cause of the complaints are only listed as ‘supervision at all times’ or ‘staff-parent communicate.” No adverse actions are noted to have been taken against the facility.

Marshall said his day care has always required a parental authorization form for all over the counter medication use, even including diaper cream and Vaseline, but will now also require a doctor’s note.

He claimed that Perkins and the staff members who reported the melatonin are ‘colluding’ against him because the staff member was allegedly found out to have lied about their educational background.

But Perkins says her only motivation is the wellbeing of her child. She has since withdrawn her daughter from the facility.

“They medicated my child without my permission. They medicated all these kids for God knows how long without any parental permission, without doctor’s notes, without any anything at all. And it’s okay if these people don’t want to work at a child care. They don’t have to work in child care, but they don’t need to hurt the kids just because they can’t control them,” said Perkins.

Hoover Police Capt Keith Czeskleba said the investigation is being handled by Jefferson County DHR and any charges against the day care or its staff would be contingent on their findings.