9-month-old baby dies after teen mom put fentanyl in his bottle, sheriff says

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. (WJXT) - Authorities in Florida are revealing the details about the death of a 9-month-old baby.

The mother is under arrest after police said she allegedly put fentanyl in the baby’s bottle.

When Sheriff Bill Leeper started his news conference, he put a baby bottle, then a pill bottle on the podium.

From there the details only got worse.

“It’s beyond my imagination why a mother would do that to her child,” Leeper said.

He said on June 26, a 17-year-old mother was tired. She wanted to put her baby son to sleep. So she made him a bottle.

“She got the baby’s bottle, filled it with formula, then went to the bathroom and found a pill bottle,” Leeper said. “She put some of what she thought was cocaine in the bottle.”

The baby wouldn’t wake up.

Deputies responded to house and tried to revive him, but he died at the hospital.

“This is the actual bottle. Our narcotics unit tested the substance and found the presence of fentanyl,” Leeper said.

The sheriff said the medical examiner on Monday ruled the baby’s death a fentanyl overdose.

They said the amount of fentanyl the baby had in his system would kill 10 people.

“Think about that. A small child. This in his system,” Leeper said.

There were other adults in the house at the time, but Leeper said it appears the mother’s actions were her decision alone.

He added this is a sad case, and it probably wont be the last.

“How do we change this so something this ridiculous doesn’t happen?” Leeper said.

“Well, obviously, it starts in the home. It didn’t here. You have to teach your kids about the dangers of drugs,” he said. “Babies are our most vulnerable among us. They are solely dependent upon someone else for all of their needs, for everything.”