Redmond woman arrested after 2-year-old eats meth

A Redmond woman has been arrested after it was determined her 2-year-old child had ingested methamphetamine, police said.

The hospital called Redmond police last Wednesday after blood tests confirmed the child had meth in his system.

The child’s mother has been charged with first-degree criminal mistreatment, endangering a minor and possession of heroin and methamphetamine. She is due to be arraigned on Thursday.

According to Redmond police, this is rare, but not unheard of.

“If parents take steps to, one, get help in treatment, if they find themselves addicted is the best way to do it,” Lt. Curtis Chambers said Monday. “If that is not a possibility, to secure their controlled substances in areas that children, especially small children, cannot get into.”

Data from the Oregon Poison Center says that in 2016, there were 382 stimulant and street drug exposures among children ages 6 to 19 in Oregon.

NewsChannel 21 spoke with Dr. Terri Mucha at Family Choice Urgent Care in Bend to find out what you should look for, if you think a child has accidentally ingested drugs.

“If a child is non-responsive, that’s probably the first thing I would look for,” Mucha said. “A non-responsive child is a child that’s — you can’t even make them mad. If they’re not acting like your kid, and you can’t make them act like your kid, then you need to have an alert on right away.”

“You know, even if they’re alert, if they’re not acting right or they’re neurologically — they’re moving their arms and legs differently, they’re vomiting, you can’t wake them up — all those things would be reasons to call 911 right away,” she said.

Mucha also explained why drugs can be especially dangerous to children,

“Levels of overdosing are very different in a a young person because their metabolism is different. Even a legal drug like marijuana at a certain quantity can be an overdose, and can be lethal. And certainly drugs like heroin and meth that could be potentially very lethal for an adult can be extremely scary in a young person,” she said.

The condition of the child is not yet known, because he is a minor and his information cannot be released.