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Macclenny mom sentenced to 12 years in prison for poisoning child

A Macclenny woman who poisoned her baby to get attention will spend the next 12 years in prison, a judge ordered Wednesday.

Shauna Taylor, 40, was convicted of child abuse and child neglect for giving her child iron pills, which caused liver damage.

Taylor, a mother of 10, brought her baby to a Jacksonville hospital three times in March of 2013, claiming her newborn was having breathing and eating problems.

Several tests found the baby had liver damage and an investigation revealed Taylor was giving the child iron supplements. Doctors called it an intentional poisoning.

Previously, Taylor had been diagnosed with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a mental disorder in which a person fakes an illness or causes illness in another person.

Annie Schreiber, Taylor’s daughter, was at the hearing Wednesday. She said her mother hurt her when she was just months old.

“I was given, you know, a drug. I was given Insulin so it's a little different. I was in the hospital," she said. "She would put it in, you know, in my milk.”

She said she never wants to speak to her mother again, and is satisfied with the judge’s ruling.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Max Horovitz with Keystone Behavioral Pediatrics said Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy can turn deadly, and that the mental disorder is often under reported.

“The true rate of the disorder is probably underestimated, because it is something where parents were hiding it, right? And it's probably not recognized as often as it truly is,” Horovitz said. ​

Taylor faced up to 45 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of aggravated child abuse and child neglect.

Federal investigators said Taylor had a history of medical child abuse with her nine other children and her parental rights for each were terminated.

She was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 15 years of probation.