CLEARFIELD – A Clearfield mother accused of mixing vodka with her baby’s formula pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges Monday during sentencing court.
Jan Louise Gaikwad, 37, was originally charged with felony endangering the welfare of a child, furnishing liquor to minors and related offenses after the incident which occurred on March 25.
She pleaded guilty to one charge, misdemeanor recklessly endangering another person and was sentenced by President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman to serve two years probation.
She was also ordered to have a drug/alcohol evaluation and complete a nurturing program.
According to the affidavit, police were called to a home on Dorey Street to investigate a report of a baby drinking vodka. Ambulance and medical personnel evaluated the child.
Gaikwad told them she used a water bottle that may have contained vodka when she made a bottle for her son. When she realized what happened, she called 911.
At the time police arrived, the baby’s bottle was almost empty and the water bottle filled with vodka was gone. The vodka was determined to be 80-proof.
A paramedic told police the baby required advanced level care.
The hospital report confirmed the baby had 64 milligrams per deciliter of ethyl alcohol in his blood. His diagnosis was pediatric poisoning.
The child was placed under continuous cardiac monitoring and was given saline through an intravenous catheter.
Further investigation revealed that the baby, who was only seven weeks and four days old, had spent his first month in the Penn Highlands Neonatal Intensive Care Unit recovering from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome due to Gaikwad being on Subutex during her pregnancy. He was only a home for a few weeks before the vodka incident.
An officer commented that he had “severe concerns” for the child’s heath because he had spent “the majoring of his life in the hospital as a result of different incidents of alcohol/drug intoxication.”
