Mother arrested for neglect of infant

Baby suffered 4 head injuries in first 7 months of life.

After an infant sustained four head injuries within the first seven months of life, the baby’s mother has been arrested on charges of child neglect causing great bodily harm, according to West Palm Beach Police.

Chynna Fontaine, a 27-year-old West Palm Beach woman, has been previously arrested for cruelty toward a child and has had her children, age 3 and 6, removed from her care in the past, according to the police report.

Fontaine told police she brought the baby to a hospital on April 6 after she said the infant fell off the bed while being changed and hit the floor. Fontaine told hospital staff that the baby had been sleeping with her in bed when the baby fell, according to police.

After hitting the floor, the baby was unresponsive and her eyes were rolling in the back of her head, police said.

Doctors at St. Mary’s Medical Center examined the baby for an eye fracture. It was the baby’s third visit after falling out of bed onto a hard tile floor, police said. Earlier incidents had happened in September, when Fontaine said she slipped, and in January, when Fontaine said the baby rolled out of bed, according to police.

On April 7, while the baby was already admitted into the hospital, she again sustained a head injury after falling off a sofa and hitting a window ledge, police said.

Florida Department of Children and Families investigators interviewed Fontaine, who said she “couldn’t take care of ” her two older children and that “they were driving her crazy,” according to police.

Investigators said Fontaine was “very immature, distractable and seemed absentminded.”

Fontaine was released on $3,000 bond on April 8, according to official records.