Samantha Cherry with 11-month-old Jonjo & finace Ashley Freed
A woman has been arrested after a baby was rushed to hospital after being given a bottle filled with bleach.
11-month-old Jonjo Freed was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital after being taken ill having been given the bottle containing a bright orange liquid by a stranger.
The 53-year-old woman, was is also believed to have been caught trying to hand a bottle to a baby outside nearby Mothercare, is being questioned at a south London police station.
Jonjo's mother Samantha Cherry, 18, told the Evening Standard that his grandmother took her eye off the child for a second as the incident happened.
She said: “Mum was with him but she must have seen something out the window. While she was looking away for a split second this woman came past and dropped the bottle into Jonjo’s buggy and carried on walking.
“Mum was completely oblivious, then she heard a noise and turned to see Jonjo being sick. He was white and throwing his head back like he was choking. He’s never sick, so she got him out of the buggy and started patting his back. Then the bottle fell onto the floor.
“It was the same kind of bottle we usually use but had this bright orange drink in and I only ever give him water.
“I came back and said ‘that’s not his bottle’. It was still half-full, so I sniffed it - and it smelt very strongly of bleach. That’s when alarm bells started to ring.
“The restaurant was quite busy and mum just shouted if anyone saw someone give him the bottle. There were a group of teenagers who had seen the woman go past and drop something into his pram.
“Mum rang the police straight away and called an ambulance. The manager got the CCTV up and showed us - it happened in tenths of a second.
A police spokesman told LBC 97.3: “Police were called to McDonalds in Eltham High Street at 12.40 to reports of a baby boy taken ill.
"The boy is 11 months old and was given a bottle with an unknown substance in it. He had swallowed some and then vomited it back up. He has been taken to a South London hospital in a stable condition.
"No arrests have been made but the police are appealing for information about a woman in her 50s with grey hair, wearing black trousers, with black trainers, long multi-coloured top and black jacket with white chevron-like markings and carrying a moron bag."
Yesterday, Greenwich Police tweeted: "WARNING ! Last 1/2 hr. Eltham High St. White female in 50's giving children in pushchairs bottles containing believed bleach".
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