TikTok Mom Under Investigation After Shocking Viral Videos Raise Major Concerns
After finding 17 diapers around her home, TikTok mom’s latest video leads to allegations of abuse.
You may remember TikTok influencer Hannah Hiatt from her viral video a couple of months ago, when she discovered 17 diapers scattered around her home during a hectic 24 hours of solo parenting her newborn and toddler. While many viewers ridiculed her, so many more moms came out and shared their understanding and support for her as an overwhelmed new mother.
Now Hannah has gone viral again, but this time for disturbing reasons.
Psst… Check Out From One Mom to Another: The New Paying It Forward Phenomenon on TikTok
Allegations of Child Abuse
Hannah, a mom of a toddler and a newborn who is also a nurse, is facing a child abuse investigation after viewers mass reported a few things they saw in her recent videos which have been deleted.
In one video, her son is sitting in a shopping cart at a supermarket when his father goes to hand the boy a food item and the toddler is seen flinching defensively during the interaction with his dad. Viewers say this is a conditioned behavior. It actually prompted parents to do their own videos where they put something up to their child’s face to show that their kids don’t get scared or flinch from the simple action.
In another video, Hannah is seen in the car with her husband and son talking about how they had been at the park for hours and hadn’t brought food for her toddler so she gave him a piece of pastry and said that would have to be his lunch because he was late for a nap. In other videos, she is heard saying her son doesn’t have a winter coat and her husband is filmed flicking her son’s hand away from the food he is eating, not wanting to give him any.
According to People, both the police and Child Protective Services are investigating the family.
“There is an open, active investigation into” TikTok creator Hannah Hiatt, who goes by @hannah_bhiatt on the platform and previously went by @nursehannahbh,” a spokesperson for the Ogden, Utah, police department told People. “There is a detective assigned to the case.”
Hannah Dismisses Allegations
The concern for her son among TikTok users, led Hannah to address the situation in a follow-up video.
“So the fact that I even have to address this is kind of insane,” she said, defending her husband as “the sweetest, nicest, kindest, most loving, most nurturing father in the entire world.”
@hannah_bhiatt 🥹👶🏼🤍🥰 #mom #momtok #postpartum #toddler #family #trending #fyp #foryou
In the controversial video, Hannah explained that her husband and son were just playing a game where they scare each other. She said her husband is the “sweetest, nicest, kindest, most loving, most nurturing father in the entire world.”
“In the video that you guys are all freaking out about, they’re just playing,” she continued. “They’re always playing where they scare each other. … that’s what they’re always doing.”
She finished with: “Nothing’s going on. From the moment that my husband wakes up in the morning, to the second he goes to bed, he is only thinking about our children and our family and what’s best for us.”
Hannah Is Not the First Vlogger to Be Investigated
Former YouTube mommy vlogger Ruby Franke is now serving a prison sentence for child abuse. The comparisons were immediately made on social media, so much so that Hannah addressed them.
“It’s hilarious, really,” Hannah said of the comparisons. “People nowadays are so desperate to become TikTok famous, they’ll post about anything in order to get views for themselves, they don’t care if it’s going to bring someone down with it, they just want to become TikTok famous.”
She emphasized that her kids are healthy and happy. “They’re well-nourished, they’re running around playing. That should be a pretty good indicator that everything’s just fine,” she said.
Part of a Larger Problem
Some viewers think Hannah’s video might have been made to stir up reactions and go viral. This brings up a bigger issue with parents filming their kids for views and followers. In recent years, there has the Grinch trend where someone dresses as the Grinch and pretends to steal kids’ gifts, and the #ghostprank where parents use a ghost filter to scare their kids. Another trend, #PrankMyBaby, has parents playing jokes on their babies to make them cry.
These trends highlight a growing concern about parents using their kids for online fame and profit.
Psst… Check out: 17 Diapers: TikTok’s Latest Trend is Surprisingly Striking a Chord with Moms
