Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Daycare Dangers, Babysitters, and Nannies from Hell? | JUSTICE NATION: CRIME STOPS HERE

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

Justice Nation: Crime Stops Here is presented with limited commercial interruption thanks to Lifelock. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LifeLock and use promo code NANCY or go to https://www.LifeLock.com/NANCY for 40% off. Terms apply. Making the right decisions when it comes to childcare can be the most important for any parent. What are the signs of a good daycare? What questions should you be asking your potential childcare provider? As a mother herself, Nancy is no stranger to these important questions. She’s joined by experts in child safety to guide parents through these tough decisions to make sure your family doesn’t end up on the five o’clock news. What are the signs of a good daycare? What questions should you be asking your potential childcare provider? Nancy, joined by child safety experts, shares her personal experiences as a mother and answers the tough questions to put parents on a path to success. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi guys, Nancy Grace here. Welcome to part five of Justice Nation Crime Stops Here. Daycare dangers, babysitters, nannies from hell. This special series is brought to you with limited commercial interruption thanks to our friends at LifeLock. During tax season, your sensitive info does a lot of traveling to places you cannot control, stopping off at payroll, your accountant or tax preparer, and countless other data centers on its way to the IRS. Any of them can expose you to identity theft because they have all the information on your W-2, just the ticket for criminals to steal your identity. No wonder the IRS reported tax fraud due to identity theft went up 20% last year. Enter LifeLock. They monitor millions of data points per second

and alert you to threats you could miss. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock's U.S.-based restoration specialist will fix it, backed by the million-dollar protection package. And restoration's guaranteed, or your money back. Don't let identity thieves take you for a ride. Get LifeLock protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code NANCY or go to lifelock.com slash NANCY for 40% off. Terms apply. Thank you, LifeLock, for making this possible and for being our partner. Welcome to Session 5. Daycare dangers, babysitters, nannies from hell, not on my watch. You know, sometimes I drive past the

twin school and I wonder, what's going on in there? And yes, when they were in play school, that was me outside looking in the window. Is that wrong? But why? Why did I do it? Because I am haunted. I'm haunted by true life cases where students have been abused, mistreated, harmed, or even killed by their caregivers. The very people that moms and dads trust with the ones they love the most. Whether it's a babysitter, a high-class nanny from an elite agency, or a paid by the hour daycare, we as a nation leave our children in the care of others so we can work. My mother did it so she could punch a calculator. Her mother did it so she could stand up all day and work at a factory. My daughter will probably do it one day, as will my son. Just because we have to leave them so we can work does not mean we cannot protect them. The pain I felt as a crime victim would be magnified 10,000 times over

if that victim were my child. I don't think I could live with myself if I made a bad decision in child care and it resulted in even a bruise. You may have the best school. You may have who you think is a great babysitter, nanny, or daycare, but very often we, I, can't see the danger. But there is a method of protecting your child when out of your sight. I don't want to be that parent asking why. And I don't want you to be that parent either. My child, a victim over my cold, dead body.

Where do I start? How can we go to work and ensure that our children are safe? Straight out to you, Francie Hakes. I'm concerned specifically about children too young to speak for themselves. That would be inference and the seminal case on nannies from hell, Louise Woodward. I covered that case live and I will never forget it. The parents, very educated, very wealthy and affluent. I think both of them were doctors and they looked long and hard before they went to an agency that sent them Louise Woodward. Now, she was a Brit.

And, you know, a lot of Americans are taken in by the sophisticated British accent. She seemed very worldly in a good way. She loved Broadway. She was accomplished. She had an education. Everything. What went wrong? Well, she had three days of training, it turns out. Three days of training. She went from babysitting occasionally, as most young girls do even today, to being a full-time nanny of two children, including Matthew Eapen,

who was only eight months old when she murdered him. You know, there was a lot of discussion about what happened with baby Maddie. And I'm trying to think of ways that I can take that tragedy and learn from it and use that knowledge to help other people. For instance, you have an infant that can't speak for itself. What do you look for? What are the signs that your babysitter or your nanny is a danger? You have to look for things like mystery bruises that don't have a good explanation. You have to look for a sense that the child might be uncomfortable whenever that person is around them.

If the child is not verbal, which eight-month-old Matthew clearly was not, then you have to look at his nonverbal cues. How did he act when he was with his nanny? Did he seem happy to see her? Did he go to her easily or did he cry? And again, you look for injuries, things that are unexplained. Does he seem to be eating all the food that the mother wants him to eat? Is he drinking all the bottles that he's supposed to be drinking? How does he appear right when she comes home from work and it's time for the nanny

to finish? Does the child seem healthy and happy? Those are really the big signs to look for. Well, those are, of course, nonverbal cues because the baby can't tell you. I'm all about nanny cams and home security. It's not just for intruders. When I first had the twins, I had not only a babysitter, but a second babysitter to watch the first babysitter watch the babies. Yeah. Okay. Very often I would have the two babysitters and my mother and father there because I was so concerned and freaked out by cases just like Louise Woodward and the brutal death of baby Matty, Matthew Eapen. What was the cause of death with Matthew Eapen? Well, it looked like what we called then, we called a shaken slamming case. So it looked like the baby had

brain injury and a two and a half inch skull fracture. And I just want to emphasize, you know this Nancy from being a prosecutor, I just want to emphasize it's actually not easy to fracture a baby's skull. They're a little bit soft. They're a little bit malleable. That's why you'll hear forensic medical examiners say on the witness stand when they see injuries just like this, that it's the same kind of injury we get in a car crash, that kind of terrible impact injury. So it's shaken baby. Infants will have impact, which is as bad as a 60 mile per hour car crash on their skull. You don't get that from falling off the sofa. No, you absolutely don't. And that's what Matthew Eapen had. The medical examiner found specifically

that he had a skull fracture, that it looked to him to be blunt force trauma, which is not the same as you would get in a fall injury. And I know in that case, they went and they measured all the surfaces. Louise Woodward told police at one point that she had dropped him on the floor, but by the time trial came around, it was, I popped him onto the bed, because that would be a more British word, popped him onto the bed, and said that the police just misunderstood her when she claimed to drop him on the floor. But you know, Nancy, that is classic child murderer defense. Well, he fell, or I just dropped him a very short distance. All they ever do is minimize what's happened.

But in that minimization, you get a kernel of truth. Well, also there is the shaken baby syndrome, which is a closed head injury. It's deadly. It's fatal. When you shake a child, a lot of people do it out of frustration because the child won't go to sleep or the child won't stop crying or it won't take its bottle or do whatever it is the adult wants it to do. They shake the baby. And what that does is cause a coup contre coup effect. That means the brain actually hits back and forth as the head is shaken, hitting the interior of the skull, which causes bleeding or bruising to the child's brain.

The brain begins to swell. There's nowhere to go. It swells against the skull, and there's permanent brain damage that ends very often in death. What I'm trying to say is when you come home and there's not a blow or a bruise or a cut on your child's head does not mean the child's okay. No, but they often show signs of that brain injury early. There's vomiting. There's lethargy. There's oftentimes the baby has trouble staying awake. These are all symptoms that something is wrong

with your child, something's wrong with the child's brain. And oftentimes that's how parents figure out there's something wrong. But by the time the child has been vomiting for some time, then the child becomes unresponsive. It's now been hours since the injury and it's too late. So what can I learn from this? The parents used a good agency. She had references. I'm curious about references. So there's one thing that I think we need to be doing as parents. There are no second chances when it comes to the safety of your children. And if you read the story, this woman was breaking rules, staying out late, drinking, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And the parents probably felt like we're in too deep. We brought her over from Great Britain. She's, you know, we're, she's living with us. They probably just

felt all of those things and they kept giving her more chances. There are no second chances. As soon as you break the first rule, I'm sorry, you're not going to be in charge of my children. And there were warnings, as innocent as they may be, coming in late, breaking curfew, not being where she was supposed to be. And being a little belligerent with them about the rules. Like she did not like the rules that they were placing on her. So there was some butting of heads. An angry babysitter taking care of your baby. Recent killings in New York where the children were killed by the nanny who had never exhibited any sign of mental illness of any sort, in fact, is not mentally ill, was angry. She had complained she needed more money.

And the mom had said, hey, you can pick up some more hours here if you want to help me clean up. You know, I'm working all the time. Then she, the nanny, felt overburdened and overwhelmed and killed the children. That was her answer to being stressed out. She slaughtered those children. That's a horrible case. It's a parent's worst nightmare because we as moms are overridden with guilt because we have to leave our children to make

a living to support our children. We want to be with them, but we have to work or we want to work and we want to be a great mom. And so you're already feeling guilty about it. A lot of moms are. You trust this babysitter. You think you're doing the right thing and you find out they're harming your children. Those are two extreme cases. But it happens quite often with babysitters and nannies. They think they've got this creme de la creme, this great posh agency. When you're looking at references, it's not just they went to school here. Yes, I've known her this long. I need references from other families where they have been a babysitter or a nanny. How do you go about finding someone you can trust to babysit your children? Well, I think first way you have to think of it as is.

Do not say go on Craig's list. No, no, I wasn't going to. Don't worry. Never. That's never going to come out of my mouth for any reason. You have to think of it as a pyramid, stacking of security as a pyramid. The base really is things like background checks, criminal checks, reference checks. But as you go up to the tip of the pyramid, you really have to stack on top because that wouldn't have affected Louise Woodward probably. She didn't have a criminal history that we know of. She had some decent references. So what else do you do? Then it's making those observations, understanding what your child's routine is, paying close attention to their health, but also considering things like nanny cams, second babysitters. You have to do a variety of things. It isn't just one thing. One thing is

never enough when it comes to the security of of things. It isn't just one thing. One thing is never enough when it comes to the security of your child. In this age of social media, it can work in your favor. It can be a positive thing for you because you can put out there, hey, I'm looking for a good nanny. And you can get personal recommendations from people who you know who have used a good nanny versus going to the agency. And to be perfectly honest with you, nannies churn like this through agencies. So it's really hard for them to keep good people. And it's a low paying job generally. So they're not getting super high quality people as a general rule, using your personal circle, leveraging your personal circle, and then meeting that person in person, even if the nanny agency

screen them for you, or somebody else screen them for you, meet them in person, even if the nanny agency screened them for you or somebody else screened them for you, meet them in person, bring them into your home, have a conversation, and get a sense of how you feel about them. Well, that's funny because I was looking for a babysitter for the twins, and I met a lady and her sister who would be filling in if she ever couldn't make it, and I distinctly smelled smoke it wasn't just it was them okay it wasn't where we were and so i said um you know i i can't have anyone smoking around

the children they went oh we don't smoke i'm like well okay that's over because they just lied to me because i could smell it all over them, even when they spoke. It was coming out of their mouth. It wasn't just their hair, or maybe they had been in a car with a smoker. Right. It was them. It's tax season, and by now, I know we're all a little tired of numbers. But here's an important number you need to hear.

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Don't face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with LifeLock Identity Theft Protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LifeLock and use promo code Nancy, or go to LifeLock.com slash Nancy for 40% off. Terms apply. Thank you, LifeLock, for being our partner. So we've got the whole babysitting nanny issue. I want to think

about the case of Ryland Kutmeyer. Do you remember that case, Francie? I do. This was a terrible case because the child was only three months old. Ryland was only three months old and died of what? A skull fracture. That's why we say that your child may not get a second chance because that skull fracture happens in an instant of rage when the babysitter or the nanny or whoever is caring for your child doesn't like something the child is doing. And it oftentimes doesn't matter what. The child could be crying. The child could be coughing. The child could be refusing to do something. The child could be not going to sleep when they're supposed to. And the sitter gets angry and bang, slams the child down.

And this person, Gum, had been convicted of a DUI. But no one told the parents that. They didn't know. And, you know, that's a misdemeanor. It's not a crime of moral turpitude, as we would have referred to when we were prosecutors. But it's still a red flag. Do you want someone who was so irresponsible as to get a DUI to care for your children? What if there's an emergency or your child is just going on a play date to school or back?

You can't trust them like that with your child. Do you recall the case of Cooper Fales? That has always stuck in my mind. I do. The Cooper Fales case is particularly gruesome, I think, or grim, That has always stuck in my mind. in the car seat. And an hour before the father came, the caregiver said, oh, you know, he's been vomiting a little bit and sort of sleeping a lot today. So I've gone ahead and put him in his car seat. So when you come and get him, you know, he's going to be sleeping. So father thinks, as many young fathers do, I don't want to wake my child because he's getting some blessed sleep.

So he puts him in the car and he takes him home. And it isn't until he gets him home and takes the cover off that he realizes his child is blue. The child had died, according to the medical examiner, at least an hour before the father ever picked him up, because this is where I say this is so grim. They couldn't intubate the child because his jaws were stiff and locked. They couldn't manipulate his hands to try to put any IVs in because they were stiff, because of course the child had been dead for some time. And yet this caregiver who, I don't want to use that term, this offender had violated all the rules, had too many children in her daycare, and this child was dead,

but no cause of death could be determined, and so she was never criminally charged. And that is where I have trouble sleeping over that case, because no one has ever been held accountable for that baby's death. He didn't just stop breathing on his own. Something bad happened. We're going to talk about daycare. First of all, I don't understand why there can't be live streaming. Not everyone can afford daycare where they have live streaming. But the reality is, it doesn't pay that much. They even have live streaming in the pet kennels where they have play stations for pets,

where you drop your pet off if you're going out of town, and you can see the cat or the dog playing or whatever. They have that for dogs. Yeah. But I can't live stream into my children's school. That, to me, is a red flag. Yes. I'm streaming to my children's school, that to me is a red flag. If you can't visit anytime they're there unannounced, that is a red flag to me. You know, sometimes, especially after I cover these cases, I just want to go to the twin school.

And I will dream up anything I have to. I'll show up with two baby aspirin and go, they're sick. But not so sick they need to stay out of school. They're just sick enough that I need to go see them and give them this baby aspirin. Or John David left his water bottle at home. Sorry. And they go, we'll take it. I'm like, oh no, I'll take it. I'll be happy to. And go, I want to just see them and lay eyes on them and know what's happening. Well, there are a lot of things that, so I do a lot of training to schools and daycares and children's charities that fund daycares and some of the things that you should look for in a good daycare. If they don't have cameras, I'm concerned. But more than that, how many people are in the room with the infants and

babies, the ones who have to have their diapers changed? Do they have a rule where two personnel are in there at all times? Where is the diaper changing station? Is it somewhere away in private where one adult takes one child away in private to change the child's diaper where no one can see them? Are there windows in the doors of the classrooms or the doors of the wherever the children are? Are there windows generally speaking, what are their safety protocols with respect to who can see the children and how often are they checked? These are all things that to me, if they don't exist, are serious red flags about a daycare. And different states have different, like in Georgia, where I'm from, they have quality rated standards and it's a star system where the daycare has to go through a certain series of, you know, take a certain

series of actions, protocols for training, protocols for safety to earn different levels of stars. And then people who are searching for a daycare can go onto the quality rated site and can look and see, you know, what's the star rating of this daycare. And they can also see if there've been complaints or violations filed against that daycare and they can see them. So parents need to do their due diligence. Yes. You can't out-blind the school.

It's the parents. The onus is on the parents to find the right place. You mentioned not being able to afford. And I, and I totally understand daycare is expensive, but if you're choosing where to spend your money, you should be spending it on the safety of your children. Oh, absolutely. So in my mind, stop eating out or stop taking vacations. Even the small daycares in the neighborhoods, the lady who takes in three of the kids in the neighborhood, if that woman can't afford a $50 pet cam that you can all tie into, you just don't go there or you buy her one.

She's operating without a license. That's right. It doesn't have to be that expensive. That brings me to my next point, and that is the home daycare, where a lot of them are unlicensed. The ones that are licensed, did you know that the House of Horrors, the Turpins in California, they actually had licensed their home to be a school of sorts or a play school of sorts. Yes, they were purportedly homeschooling all those. It had never been checked out by the local government. It had never been under all the due diligence by the local

authorities. Nothing. It had never been visited. Nothing. So when somebody just puts a sign out that they're a daycare or they're a play school, that's not necessarily true. Well, and to your point, social media can be a critical tool today. And if you are not, if you're not using social media to check out the daycare provider, the people inside the daycare, the certified supposedly providers, what are their pages show? What do they post on Instagram? What do they post on Facebook? Do they engage in behavior that you think is risky and you wouldn't let a babysitter who comes into your home engage in, then you shouldn't have your children with those people. If you're not checking out on social media at a minimum, the people in your child's life,

you're crazy. The story of baby Autumn is one that seems to echo over and over and over. What happened with baby Autumn, Francie? Well, of course, baby Autumn died of what? Severe head trauma. Just like most of these children do, her babysitter threw her to the floor. She admits that she threw her to the floor, which I'm not sure I credit, by the way, because throwing a child to the floor is maybe not going to result in severe head trauma. It depends on how much the child weighs, how hard she threw her. A three-year-old child, if you just shove her down, is not going to have severe head trauma. So I don't necessarily buy the babysitter's tale on that, but she claimed that the child wouldn't take her jacket off. And so the babysitter flew into a rage and killed her.

I mean, she killed her over a jacket. We'll never know, really, what happened. Because every time these women, it seems like it's almost always women, these caregivers, every time these caregivers murder a child in their care, we only have their side of the story. And of course, they minimize what has happened. I suspect that she brutally injured that child, very purposefully, slamming her somewhere or hitting her with something, causing that level of head trauma. She was only three years old. And the parents had tried so hard to have a child, and they finally get baby Autumn. And she loses her life that way. This child had a black eye and bloody lips and I think a split chin while she was in the care of the babysitter.

So there were signs. Now, I'm assuming that she probably gave the parents, because, you know, three-year-olds fall down. She bumped into the table. I'm sure she gave them good explanations, but those are definitely red flags that should have led to a nanny cam further investigation, maybe even calling in. Zero tolerance. But here's the thing about the nanny cams. I let the babysitters know that there are nanny cams. In fact, I call them and say, John David is crawling up the bookcase right now.

If you would just turn around, you could see that. Or did you turn the lights off in so-and-so room? Or could you turn the lights on outside if I had to be out of town early night watching yeah I'm watching deal with it and if you don't like it don't cash the check and go somewhere else I mean I'm gonna be watching it sounds sort of silly we don't have any kids in the house but we have a pet cam so that when we go out of town for extended periods of time I can make sure that our pet sitter is actually coming in and taking care of our pets. I mean, if I had a child, I would certainly be doing that minimum amount.

They're very, very low cost. As a matter of fact, you can now get them tied in with your cable company. It's so easy to do. You can get them online, stuffed into a teddy bear if you want to keep it a secret but i like to put it out there but a secret and that's right it's not a secret i am watching yes you want to you know there are the issues of over medication at daycares and with babysitters and nannies when they don't want to deal with the baby they put the baby to sleep with say benadryl yes really have to watch out when your child is lethargic when you pick it up.

Children aren't supposed to be lethargic. They're not tired. I may be dragging my tail at the end of the day, but they are full of energy. They want to stay up all night. We can model that. Yeah. So when they are lethargic, that's a big red flower. And when a daycare center or a service or a home daycare has too many children, that's when we hear about those cases. Because that person, and I just really oppose one person at a daycare on every level. But when it's one person, they can't handle that many children and that's what happens they medicate those kids so that they can either go watch television and eat in peace or just not deal with the children generally and put put them all to sleep effectively here's another

issue with babysitters and daycares who else comes to You know, you may have a babysitter or a nanny. You don't want their boyfriend riding up on his motorcycle and coming in to watch a movie and have a beer. No, you don't know that boyfriend. You don't know anything about them and you don't want that person around your child. Just like in the home, don't expose your children, if you can help it, to the TV repairman, the cable guy, the phone guy. No, you don't know them. You don't want them watching your child. No, that gives them an opportunity to get to know your child and plan to abduct your child. I know it sounds crazy, but it happens, Francie. It does happen. It does happen. And what's really frightening is that if your child sees the

cable guy come in or the refrigerator repairman and sees you talking to him and bantering about with him, if that person comes back when you're not home, that child feels like they know that person. That is a huge risk to expose your child to someone you can't possibly know their background. So you don't want them pulling up 10 minutes after you drive out of the driveway or go down the elevator. You know, we were talking about nanny cams and baby cams. A big fear now is baby monitor hacking. And it happens where people can get control of your baby monitor. It's on a frequency. And if you can get into the frequency, you can see what's happening in someone's home. Especially the video baby monitors. But even now we've got Alexa in our house and

everything's wired together. And if you don't think people can see your stuff through your webcams and through your TV sets and every technology device in your house now is able to be hacked. How do we go about preventing the hacking? So a lot of people don't want to get them because they don't want to be hacked. Well, it's all about cyber security. It's generally about cyber security. There's really two things you need to worry about if you have any kind of a baby monitor or, frankly, a webcam on your laptop, which we all do now, or on your iPad. That is, first, you have to worry about whether or not you're keeping up with security updates on your phone, your iPad, your laptop, and your baby monitor. More importantly though, is your own wireless router. If you're someone who has an unsecured wireless router, you are really begging for trouble in your house because then they can get into every single device that you have. So have good password security

on both the baby monitor and the router. Don't have the same password security. One of the things of all these cases of recent baby monitor hacking, the parents all admitted that when they first opened the box and turned on and installed the baby monitor over the internet, they just left it at the default password, which you can find online just like you can for any device that you have. It's 0000 or 1234. If you forget it, you too can go online to get the original manufacturer's password. So the first thing you have to do is change that

and make it something secure. Think a little bit about cybersecurity. Do you want someone walking in your house and rummaging around your things? That's why you have locks on your doors and alarms. Think of your computers and your router the same ways. Those are gateways into your home. You've got to secure them.

It's overwhelming. And it's easy to be lulled into a sense of complacency. It won't happen to me. It will happen to them because they did X, Y, and Z, which I would never do. That's not true. These types of crimes happen across the boards, regardless of your race, socioeconomics, your education. Look at baby Maddie's parents, both of them physicians from fantastic schools in a wealthy and affluent neighborhood. Baby Maddie is dead through no fault of theirs.

It happened to them. It can happen to us unless we stop it. That was a tidal wave of information. Let's boil it down. Daycares, babysitters, nannies from hell. Let's tackle daycare first. Good indications of high-quality child care. First of all, there should be small groups of children. Look for two staff in the room at all times. Is the changing station where everybody can see it? You want that. Are there windows so you can see through the doors? Now, in some states, there are quality rating systems and websites that you can check when you're looking for daycare. You want regular visits from a child

care health consultant in that daycare. That's every one to three months. Always make sure the daycare is licensed by the state at the very least. Ask about staff turnover. You want low staff turnover. Make sure the daycare runs background checks on all the employees, including a criminal record check and a motor vehicle record check. You don't want some woman with eight DUIs taking care of your baby. If she'll drive drunk, will she take care of your baby drunk? And remember, while background checks can show you red flags, you should take the interview process and reference checks very seriously in order to get the full picture of your future caregiver. Think of safety as a pyramid. Background checks, criminal history, references, then making observations. Drop in whenever you feel like it, especially unannounced. If they don't want you to show up unannounced, then you don't want them.

That's a problem. Does your daycare have a nanny cam and can you stream into it? If not, why not? Childcare is expensive, but choose to spend your money on the safety of your children. Let's think about your babysitter. First of all, don't let your babysitter or nanny bring over the boyfriend. Okay? You don't know him and you don't want him in your home around your children. Remember, with babysitters, zero tolerance. There are no second chances when it comes to taking care of your child.

A great tip, use social media and your personal circle to find a good babysitter or nanny. Research your caregiver's babysitter's nannies on social media. Look at what they post on Facebook. If every other picture is them holding a drink or a joint, you don't want them. Hold your caregivers accountable. Get a nanny cam. Tell them you're watching. It's not a secret. What if your child can't tell you what's wrong? Think about signs of abuse and distress in your children. Does your baby cry

or put up a fight when it's time to go to daycare or when the sitter walks in the room? Have you ever come home to find unexplained bruises, scratches, or injuries? Have you noticed changes in the behavior of your children? Have they become especially clingy? Do they isolate themselves or have they turned overly aggressive? Have they begun to wet the bed when it didn't happen before? Do they exhibit more infantile behavior than normal? Do they suddenly begin complaining of tummy aches or headaches when the babysitter shows up or after being with the babysitter? If your child is lethargic after being at daycare or with a babysitter, you must take them to urgent care or call the doctor immediately. Has your babysitter or caregiver described your child in a negative way,

belittled your child, or seemed apathetic toward your child? Have they behaved irrationetic toward your child? Have they behaved irrationally to your knowledge? Do they seem harsh with discipline? Do they act controlling or jealous with family members? We have to discuss sex abuse. Does your child have itching or an injury to their genital area? Do they have any difficulty sitting down or walking? Have they demonstrated sexual knowledge or curiosity beyond their age? That's a warning sign about your caregiver. The moment you suspect abuse or neglect, remove your child as quickly as possible.

Take your child to a pediatrician or a health care provider to be examined immediately. Doctors, social workers, nurses, psychologists are required under the law to report cases of suspected abuse. As to baby monitors, practice good password security on your monitor, your computer, and the router. Do not use the default password on the baby monitor. You can look up the default password online. Please update your security updates on a regular basis. Please consult the materials that we have given you in addition to this series. There are downloads, there's information, and even more tips regarding babysitters, nannies, and daycares from hell.