Australian influencer investigated for drugging her child for views, fundraising

Australian police are investigating an influencer and mummy blogger accused of deliberately drugging her daughter to win followers and tens of thousands of dollars in donations.

The mum-of-four built an online following of over one million by sharing details of what she said was her child’s life-threatening brain tumour.

Now she has been blocked from accessing more than $66,000 of donations after accusations that she drugged her daughter to cause the symptoms.

The influencer mum, who cannot be named to protect her toddler’s identity, is being investigated for ‘child harm’ by police in Queensland.

The influencer mum is being investigated for ‘child harm’ by police. Photo / 123RF

The influencer had previously pointed the finger at medical authorities for what she claimed was a slow response to her child’s symptoms.

“I have been advocating for [my child] for about five, six months, prior to her diagnosis, saying I thought that there was something wrong with my child and I was just palmed off,” she told followers.

“We could have found out about this a lot earlier and started treatment,” she claimed, saying dealing with the issue had been ”traumatic”.

“Honestly, I am still healing, I am struggling every day,” she said.

Australian media reported that hospital staff raised the alarm after noticing that the mother was giving information to her followers that did not match the treatment her child was receiving.

The child is now understood to be recovering after being taken into foster care.

“Police are aware of reports of child harm against a one-year-old girl,” police said in a statement.

“The Queensland Police Service has taken action to protect the child and commenced an investigation.

“As this is an active investigation it would be inappropriate to provide further comment.”

‘You’re an absolute monster’

The father of the child had played an active role in the mother’s social media activity and has now come forward to claim he had no idea what she was doing, labelling her a “monster”.

“For what it’s worth, I had no idea about what [the mother] was doing to [the child],” he wrote in a social media post.

“I pushed for those surgeries because in my heart I felt it would help.

‘I didn’t realise [the child] was [allegedly] being drugged the entire time causing her symptoms to be what they were.

“I do my best to love and protect my children. I should’ve done better for them.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect [the child] the way I should have,” he said, telling followers all his children were now in protective care over police fears he too was involved.

“You’re an absolute monster. You win,” he said to his children’s mother.

“To all four of my beautiful children, I love you so dearly. I’m so sorry.”