A MOTHER from Stanley tried to poison her baby by secretly adding dangerous amounts of salt to her milk.

For six months 20-year-old Rebecca Graham added sachets of salt to her daughter Kaitlyn's bottles hoping to have the baby hospitalised so she wouldn't have to look after her, a court was told.

But she was caught when a suspicious nurse sent a bottle away to be tested and the final piece of damning evidence came from her own mother Marie, who told police that Graham had been warned by health workers that salt could potentially kill her baby.

Last week Graham admitted to administering a poison and cruelty to a child at Newcastle Crown Court.

Baby Kaitlyn was rushed back into hospital shortly after she was born in August last year after her mum complained to a GP she was vomiting.

Hospital doctors found unusually high levels of salt in her body and for months, battled to discover what was wrong with the child during numerous visits to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary. It was only in January this year that a vigilant nurse suspected Graham.

PC Louise Wilson from Durham police's child protection unit said: "Nursing staff had become concerned because Rebecca did not want to bother with her baby, was reluctant to feed her and she was just left in darkened corners when she was in hospital.

"They found out that Rebecca was preparing feeding bottles herself. One nurse tasted the milk in a bottle and found it to be salty."

Senior staff sent the bottle away for tests, which confirmed extremely high levels of salt and Graham was arrested. It was then detectives discovered empty salt sachets stashed in her handbag.

PC Wilson said: "She had been going to the canteen and taking the salt from there and putting it in the baby's bottle before feeding her."

Graham, who has no other children and lives with her partner Robert Hogarth, 20, in Stanley, initially denied trying to poison her baby, claiming she did not know feeding her salt would harm the child.

But her mother, Marie, told police she had been present when a health worker had discussed the dangers of giving a baby salt. PC Wilson said: "She said she remembered Rebecca telling the health worker that she had seen a couple of articles where mothers had tried to kill their baby by giving them salt.

"She clearly knew she shouldn't be giving the baby salt. It's still difficult to understand why she wanted to harm her baby. From what nurses have told us we can only assume she did not want to look after the baby."

It is understood that Kaitlyn, now nine months old, has made a full recovery and has since been adopted.

On Thursday, Graham was granted bail and will be sentenced after the preparation of reports. Judge Guy Whitburn said: "The child is lucky to be alive. This is very serious indeed. Custody will certainly be a matter foremost in the court's mind."

After the case, Dr Peter Morrell, consultant paediatrician at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, described the danger of feeding salt to babies, whose immature kidneys cannot process the substance.

He said: "You end up with a high level of salt in the bloodstream. It then disrupts the metabolism of the brain.

"Before you get symptoms the baby would be unwell, maybe drowsy, maybe vomiting. Eventually there would be seizures, coma and death.