By Michael Winter
USA TODAY
A 26-year-old California mother faces child abuse charges after her 5-month-old daughter was given formula accidentally made with alcohol, KXTV reports from Stockton.
The infant's babysitter, Tressie Piggee, 44, said she made formula early Saturday using what she thought was water from a bottle in the refrigerator.
"I was making formula at 2 a.m. and didn't know that the plastic bottle next to the baby's formula was filled with Bacardi and not water," she told the station, owned by Gannett, USA TODAY's parent.
Piggee, whom KTXL-TV identifies as the grandmother, said the baby refused the bottle several times during the night. About 10 a.m. Saturday, the girl's mother, Iesha Hill, opened the bottle and smelled alcohol. They rushed the infant to a hospital, and she was transferred to the University of California-Davis Hospital.
The medical staff called police after finding alcohol in her system.
Hill is detained in the San Joaquin County Jail. She is due in court Tuesday.
Piggee describes Hill as "a good mother" and questioned her arrest.
"I don't feel that she should have been arrested because it was an accident," she told the Fox station. "We all make mistakes."
The infant is expected to make a full recovery, the London Daily Mail says.