What Do I Do If My Child Was Given Medication at a Grapevine Daycare Center Without My Consent?

Why Would a Caregiver Give Medication Without Consent?

It is hard to fathom why a paid professional would bypass a parent's permission, but in our experience advocating for local families, we often see two main causes: negligence and convenience.

• Negligence: This often happens in disorganized Grapevine daycare centers. A caregiver might mix up medications and children, giving your child a dose of antibiotics or a fever reducer intended for another child. They might also misread a label or fail to check the log, leading to an accidental overdose.
• Convenience (Chemical Restraint): This is the more disturbing reality. In daycare centers that are understaffed or have untrained caregivers, the adults in charge may feel overwhelmed by a room full of energetic toddlers. Some resort to giving children Benadryl, melatonin, or other sedatives to make the kids sleep longer or calm down. This is not just helping children nap, though. It is a dangerous violation of Texas childcare laws, also known as the minimum standards.

Is It Illegal for a Texas Daycare Center to Give My Child Medicine?

Yes, if the caregivers do not have your specific written permission. Per the minimum standards, a daycare cannot administer any medication—prescription or over-the-counter—without prior written authorization from the parent.

To be legal, the permission must be:

• Written and signed by the parent
• Specific to the medication being given
• Logged with the date, time, and dosage administered

If a daycare center in Grapevine gives your child medication, be it Tylenol for a warm forehead or Benadryl for a sneezing episode during allergy season, and you have not signed off on that specific instance or provided a standing medical form, the caregivers have violated state childcare regulations.

What Is Chemical Restraint at Grapevine Daycare Centers and Why Is It Dangerous?

You may have heard this term in the news, and it is critical to understand. Chemical restraint happens when a caregiver at a Grapevine daycare center uses an over-the-counter medication like antihistamines or sleep aids to restrict a child's movement or behavior—essentially, to drug them into submission or sleep.

This is extremely dangerous for several reasons:

• Dosage Errors: Caregivers are not pharmacists. Even a fraction of a dose of an adult medication can poison a toddler, causing seizures and possibly death in extreme cases. (An estimated 64,000 children younger than 5 were unintentionally poisoned in a single year, per a March 2025 Consumer and Product Safety report.) 
• Masking Symptoms: If a child is sick or in pain, sedating them hides the symptoms, delaying necessary medical treatment.
• Unknown Allergies: If your child has never taken that specific medication, they could suffer a severe allergic reaction.

In Texas, using medication as a form of behavior control can be classified as daycare abuse. The minimum standards also state that caregivers should not force a child to nap. 

What Should I Do If I Suspect My Child Was Medicated at a Grapevine Daycare Center Without My Permission?

If you suspect your child was given medication without your consent at a daycare center in Grapevine, do not wait for the daycare director or your child’s caregiver to explain it away as not a big deal.

Follow these five steps to protect your child’s health and your family’s legal rights:

1. Seek Medical Attention Immediately: Your child’s health is the priority. Take them to a local emergency room like Baylor Scott & White Medical Center or Cook Children's. You can also see your preferred pediatrician. We recommend asking the doctor for a toxicology screen to identify exactly what medication is in your child's system and how it will affect their current or long-term health. This medical evaluation and record will be a key piece of evidence if you decide to take legal action.
2. Contact the Grapevine Police Department: As we stated earlier, giving your child a medication for its unintended purpose is considered a form of daycare abuse. Call the department at 817-410-8127 as soon as possible so the police can properly investigate.

3. File a Report with the State: While daycare centers are required to file an incident report with the state and provide parents with a copy, this does not always happen. That’s why we recommend Grapevine parents report the daycare incident themselves by calling the Texas Abuse Hotline at 800-252-5400. This will trigger an independent investigation into any violations of the minimum standards and ensure the state is aware of the Grapevine daycare center’s negligent actions.

4. Preserve as Much Evidence as Possible: Evidence is necessary to strengthen your family’s legal case against a daycare center in Grapevine. We recommend you:

• Grab screenshots of any text messages or emails where the daycare director or a caregiver discusses giving your child the medication.
• Record a video of your child upon picking them up from the Grapevine daycare center if they exhibit symptoms of being drugged, such as acting lethargic, confused, or clumsier than usual.
• Take pictures if your child vomited or has residue on their clothing after having an adverse reaction to or poisoning from a medication administered at the daycare center.
• Write down a timeline of when you dropped your child off, their behavior at pickup, and what the staff said.

5. Contact Our Daycare Injury Lawyers: You have a legal right to get answers from a Grapevine daycare center after your child was improperly medicated, especially if the daycare center attempts to cover up the drugging incident. 

At The Button Law Firm, we know the tactics daycares use to hide medication errors, and we know how to uncover the truth. We can help you:

• Hold the Center Accountable. We fight to secure results that help to cover your child’s medical bills, long-term therapy to help them process the incident in a healthy way, and other damages your family endures because of the incident.
• Investigate the Daycare Center. We pull the facility’s state safety records to see if they have a pattern of unsafe practices, including safety failures such as the ones that led to your child’s incident involving medication without your consent.
• Make Grapevine Safer. By holding negligent daycare centers in the community accountable, we force them to comply with the state’s safety standards, protecting other children in the community from suffering the same fate.

If you believe a Grapevine daycare center gave your child medication without your consent, do not navigate this alone. Contact us for a free case evaluation by calling 214-699-4409 or emailing us at intake@buttonlawfirm.com. We work on contingency, meaning we don’t charge you or collect any upfront fees to speak with you or get started on your case. Our Grapevine daycare injury lawyers are ready to listen and advise you on the best path forward for your family.