An Iowa mother was sentenced to a decade in prison for repeatedly injecting her toddler son with insulin to make him appear sick.
Alexandra Marie Frost, aged 26, confessed in June to charges of child endangerment and administering harmful substances, as reported by The Gazette. She was back in court on Friday for her sentencing.
In court, Frost requested a suspended sentence with probation, but the prosecutors advocated for consecutive five-year terms for both charges, a recommendation which Judge Mike Harris upheld.
Court documents say that Frost also asked to withdraw her guilty plea, but Harris denied that motion.
The incident came to light when Frost’s 2-year-old son was admitted to the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital on March 13, 2023, as per the criminal complaint against her. Medical staff identified that the child had dangerously low glucose levels, which they treated with glucose. Subsequent lab tests revealed significantly elevated insulin levels in the boy’s system.
As the child stayed in the hospital, his glucose levels continued to inexplicably drop and stabilize, leading doctors initially to confusion until they suspected these irregularities were due to medical child abuse, previously known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
The day following the child’s admission, hospital staff turned on a surveillance camera in his room, as documented in an affidavit. The footage captured Frost emerging from the bathroom holding what seemed to be a syringe, then injecting it into her son’s foot and later disposing of it in the room’s “sharps” container.
After the injection, the toddler became agitated and screamed.
A doctor confirmed that the boy did not have a medical condition that would require insulin.
Following this revelation, the state Department of Health and Human Services took custody of the child, who then experienced no further issues with blood sugar or insulin levels.
