Mother Sentenced for Trying to Suffocate Infant

ST. PAUL (AP) - A mother accused of trying to suffocate her baby has been sentenced in Ramsey County to four months behind bars.

Katie Lewis admitted she pinched her infant's nose shut until the 5-month-old boy passed out. Judge Judith Tilsen ordered Lewis to get treatment for her diagnosed disorder called Munchausen-by-proxy. Experts say the disorder is one in which someone, usually a parent, hurts another person to gain sympathy for themselves.

The 25-year-old Litchfield woman was also given a suspended sentence of a year and a day and ordered to serve three years of probation. Lewis brought the baby to Children's Hospital in St. Paul after reporting that he would stop breathing, then regain consciousness. Doctors couldn't find anything wrong with the boy. Lewis attempted to suffocate the baby while nurses watched on a video monitor.

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