Cassie Hutchins said United Airlines staff made her place her 8-month-old daughter's car seat in a "dangerous" position during a recent flight from Denver

Cassie Hutchins says she feared the worst during a recent United Airlines flight from Denver, Colorado.

Hutchins, 23, was preparing to board a flight to Sacramento on Sunday when, she says, an agent at the gate began to question her about her 8-month-old daughter, Mila.

Get push notifications with news, features and more.

“He asked about her having to eat, if I was taking her car seat, and where we were sitting on the plane,” she tells PEOPLE. “I thought that was an odd question.”

Image zoom Cassie Hutchins’ daughter, Mila Courtesy Cassie Hutchins

When Hutchins, her mother and Mila, were in their first class seats — with Mila fastened in her car seat — the agent “ran onto the plane” and rushed to the family, Hutchins says.

Image zoom Mila facing forward in car seat Courtesy Cassie Hutchins

“He came over and told me that I can’t have [Mila] rear-facing and I needed to face her forward or else the plane couldn’t leave,” she says.

Federal Aviation Administration guidelines state that a child can be placed in a rear-facing position, but must be in an airline seat that is faced forward. However, airline staff told Hutchins that “strict” policy prohibited Mila from facing the seat.

“There were at least four people surrounding us and my daughter was screaming. They were very forceful, it was a really bad situation,” the new mom tells PEOPLE. “They were telling me I need to forward-face her or the plane couldn’t move. They kept telling me I was wrong, but I did all of my research and I knew what she should’ve been doing. They tried to make me feel like it didn’t matter.”

Image zoom Mila (left) and mom Cassie Hutchins Courtesy Cassie Hutchins

Hutchins did as she was told, placing the 18-pound child in a forward-facing position in the car seat. She says the plane immediately hit turbulence, and Mila’s head and body often jerked from the seat.

“I had to hold her head back, her body would go forward,” she recalls. “I was concerned that if we hit something bigger it could’ve been an issue.”

Shortly before the plane landed, airline staff approached Hutchins and apologized for the incident, admitting that they had been wrong about the policy. Hutchins was then able to position Mila properly for the landing.

Image zoom Cassie Hutchins (left) with daughter Mila Courtesy Cassie Hutchins

She later spoke out about the incident in a Facebook post, writing that airline staff made her put her “child in a dangerous position.” She said they have since refunded Mila’s ticket.

In a statement to PEOPLE, an airline spokesperson acknowledged that the employees had been “mistaken.”