Sascha Wil­son

Frus­trat­ed by the cries of a nine-month-old ba­by girl, a fe­male rel­a­tive re­port­ed­ly fed the ba­by a dead­ly mix­ture of poi­son and milk in her bot­tle.

Hours lat­er, ba­by Salileen was dead and the 30-year-old woman in po­lice cus­tody.

Shocked and sad­dened over Salileen’s death on Fri­day, rel­a­tives could not un­der­stand or for­give the woman’s ac­tions when Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the home at Busy Cor­ner, New Grant, Princes Town.

The in­ci­dent oc­curred around 12.20 pm on Wednes­day, while the woman was at the home with her 10-year-old son and the ba­by.

Po­lice claim the woman con­fessed to them while at the Princes Town Health Fa­cil­i­ty, where the ba­by was tak­en in un­re­spon­sive around 3.15 pm.

Ac­cord­ing to the po­lice re­port, the woman told of­fi­cers the ba­by be­gan to cry un­con­trol­lably and she be­came frus­trat­ed and fed her Malathion in­sec­ti­cide us­ing a sy­ringe. She left the ba­by on a bed and short­ly af­ter, she found her un­re­spon­sive.

The ba­by’s aunt told Guardian Me­dia that af­ter she re­alised the ba­by was un­re­spon­sive, she per­formed CPR on her as they await­ed the ar­rival of the am­bu­lance.

Ba­by Salileen was tak­en to the health fa­cil­i­ty and then trans­ferred to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where she died around 6.30 pm.

Po­lice seized a sy­ringe, a ba­by bot­tle and a 250ml bot­tle with the mark­ings Malathion at the home.

The ba­by’s grief-strick­en step-grand­moth­er Sharmela De­onar­ine, 42, re­called that she left the ba­by play­ing on a bed at her home on Wednes­day and went out. How­ev­er, min­utes lat­er, she re­ceived a phone call that the ba­by was gasp­ing for breath. When she got to the hos­pi­tal, Salileen was al­ready dead.

De­onaraine could not un­der­stand or ex­plain the ac­tions of the sus­pect.

“Every­body is try­ing to find out the same thing. I even ask her if she fed-up. She keep bawl­ing she fed-up and she frus­trat­ed but that lit­tle ba­by don’t even cry. That child al­ways hap­py, she laugh­ing. She was well loved, she was kept re­al good at my home. My chil­dren, every­body used to treat she re­al re­al good.”

She said Salileen on­ly be­gan liv­ing with her three weeks ago, af­ter she (ba­by) was dis­charged from the hos­pi­tal.

“The ba­by was look­ing pale and the ba­by was not act­ing like a nor­mal ba­by. She was more like a pre­ma­ture ba­by. I don’t know, the ba­by was re­al­ly stiff and stuff like that, so I start­ed to take care of the ba­by and rub the ba­by and child start­ed to do re­al nice, healthy, she was hap­py. The child gain weight,” she added.

The step-grand­moth­er said when she left home on Wednes­day, the sus­pect, who was at home with her (sus­pect’s) 10-year-old son, was “nor­mal.”

“I re­al­ly don’t know. I re­al­ly don’ know what make she do some­thing like that but it re­al­ly re­al­ly hurt­ing me. It both­er­ing me, is a nine-months child and that is an in­no­cent child. She not sup­posed to be dy­ing like that,” she said.

De­spite their fi­nan­cial woes, De­onar­ine, a part-time do­mes­tic work­er, said she al­ways made sure the ba­by had pam­pers, milk and ce­re­al. She said she can­not for­give the sus­pect.

Mean­while, an ex­pert is re­mind­ing the pub­lic that post­par­tum de­pres­sion is very se­ri­ous and could cul­mi­nate in death.

Clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist Vic­to­ria Siew­nar­ine-Gee­lals­ingh ex­plained that a moth­er could ex­pe­ri­ence “ba­by blues” with­in the first two weeks of giv­ing birth, where they de­vel­op mood swings, cry­ing spells and anx­i­ety.

But she said post­par­tum de­pres­sion sets in six weeks af­ter birth and it typ­i­cal­ly lasts for six months.