A hidden camera caught a nanny shaking a crying five-month-old baby girl several times before smothering the child to keep her quiet.
Cheryl White, 60, is charged with unlawful neglect of a child or helpless person by legal custodian and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.
The baby's family gave the video to the news media on Thursday, which prompted charges against White.
Wesley Locklair, the baby's father, said he set up the camera in his South Carolina home after seeing a media report about nanny abuse.
His wife watched some of the video that shows White shaking the baby and called Locklair screaming, "She's shaking my baby, she's shaking my baby!" Locklair told News13.
Locklair said White's references checked out and she passed a criminal background check.
Scott Bellamy, White's attorney, declined to comment about the charges.
Repeated abuse can cause critical harm to a child, experts say.
"Brain bruises, hemorrhages in the eyes from being shaken, broken bones, those are the types of things the baby just can't recover from," said Dr. Allen Perkins with USA Family Medicine. Some parents use nanny cameras as an extra precaution to safeguard their child when they are not at home.
Dana Williams, a concerned mother, purchased a nanny cam for her home.
"You can't trust people with your kids, not all the time," Williams said.
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