A children's nurse in Guangzhou City was found feeding tranquilizers to a girl infant under her care, simply to keep the baby quiet and ease her work.

According to the Taihe Township Police Station under Baiyun District Public Security Bureau, the case is still under investigation.

Yang, the infant's mother, hired the nurse, surnamed Zeng, three days after she gave birth to a girl on February 13, in Guangzhou's Shahe People's Hospital.

Zeng was hired on for the first month, and as the housekeeping company is popular in Guangzhou, Yang decided to renew the contract for one month longer in March.

The infant's behavior was characterized by sleeping during the day and crying throughout the night, which was extremely vexing to Yang and Zeng.

But according to Yang, since February 27, the baby became quiet and fell asleep easily, sometimes even slept for over 20 hours after she had been fed.

Up during the wee hours of April 8, Yang happened to taste the milk which had been prepared for the baby by Zeng, and found the milk was bitter.

Under Yang's threats to call the police, Zeng admitted she had added tranquilizers to the milk.

The baby was sent to the No 12 Hospital of Guangzhou, the Guangzhou Women and Infants Hospital and the Guangzhou Children's Hospital for examination after the event.

And the results from the three hospitals show that the girl is fine.

Zeng said that her work was very difficult, she had to nurse the baby for almost a whole night, and during the day, she must finish the housework.

In fact, the sleeping medication was brought for her personally in the first place. When she was extremely tired one night, she decided to give some to the baby.

Zeng said she only added one-eighth of a pill for once.

"I just hoped the child would sleep well, I did not have any evil ideas," Zeng said.

(China Daily April 22, 2004)