It was the needle marks on one of the little girls bodies that led social services staff to realise something was badly wrong at the home of Ashlee Hutt.

The 24-year-old mother has been charged with criminal mistreatment and child assault after a court heard how she injected heroin into her three children - a six-year-old boy, a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old girl - calling it “sleep juice” and “feel good medicine”.

Child protection services in Washington state said they had seen heroin injection marks and bruising on the younger girl’s body. A month later, the son was interviewed and described being injected with “feel-good medicine,” a mixture of white powder and water injected with a needle.

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The substance was also used on his sisters and the children usually fell asleep afterwards, The News Tribune reported. The family home was littered with rat droppings.

Ms Hutt’s boyfriend, Mac McIver, 25, faces the same charges and was arrested on September 7. He is in the Pierce County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.