Why This Photo of a Boy Swaddled in a Blanket Is Being Labeled as Child Abuse

Swaddling a newborn is a good thing — it helps infants feel secure and sleep more soundly, but swaddling a 2-year-old boy in order to force him to take a nap? For the parents of William Vannest, that's child abuse.

After a long search for a quality day care center, Jason and Rebecca Vannest had been sending their son to Rainbow Child Care Center in Davison, MI, for more than a year. That is, until this past June, when a worker at the facility reached out to the parents with a shocking photo.

"She explained to us he was being physically bound for naps, and over time, this happened about a period of a couple of months," Jason told WNEM News.

Understandably, the parents immediately pulled William out of the day care facility and filed a police report, but they say that the veteran employee responsible for the mistreatment is still employed and, although the Department of Health and Human Services cited Rainbow for wrongdoing, the punishment — if any — is unknown.

"It felt like we had a trust," Rebecca recalled of her relationship with the day care administrators, in which she'd often call to check in on how things were going. "It's just scary as a parent because I don't know how another parent would find this out."