Mother killed her 17-month-old baby by feeding it too much salt

Kimberly Martines, who killed her 17-month-old baby, Peyton, by feeding excess salt, was sentenced to 30 years in jail.

Fox Carolina reported that the woman from Spartanburg, South Carolina, poisoned her daughter to win back her estranged husband.

Martines was sentenced on July 25, 2018, about two years after she was arrested for the murder of her daughter. She admitted to poisoning the 17-month-old with a deadly amount of salt.

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The 25-year-old was arrested when Peyton Martines was brought to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. She was immediately placed on life support after suffering from seizures and a fever due to acute salt poisoning.

The excess salt in her body caused Peyton’s brain to shut down, after which doctors placed her on life support.

The baby died five days later on August 5, when she was taken off life support.

At first, Martines had told authorities that the girl and her twin sister got into a bag of salt she had left overnight. However, her four-year-old son had a different story to tell.

He told investigators that he watched his mother give Peyton a full spoon of salt. He even described the bag in detail.

The salt bag was found later by the investigators under a sofa cushion.

The mother confessed that she fed a tablespoon of salt to the baby. She said she did that to “get her husband back into her life” after they had separated.

She also revealed that she chose Peyton because she was the child in closest proximity to her at the time.

Martines will have to serve 30 years in prison. She will have to serve 85 percent of her sentence before she becomes eligible for release.

Peyton’s twin sister and her elder brother were both placed in protective custody with the Department of Social Services, according to Daily Mail.

At the time of the toddler’s death in 2016, her family fondly remembered her saying, ‘Peyton was the most beautiful, happiest, loving baby ever. She never cried and was a silly baby making everyone laugh.’

The Daily Mail said that the cause of Peyton’s death was hypernatremia or salt poisoning. It is caused by the presence of excess salt in the bloodstream, causing cells to shrink as water rushes out of them.

According to the World Action on Salt and Health, infants are susceptible to hypernatremia as their kidneys are too immature to process the extra salt in their foods.