Police detained a baby sitter to facilitate investigations into the death of an eight-month-old boy on Thursday due to severe head injury.

Ipoh District police chief ACP Sum Chang Keong said the married woman, aged 36, was picked up at her house in Taman Meru here at 11am, barely five hours after the baby boy was pronounced dead at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital.

He said a doctor had lodged a report at the Sungai Senam Police Station after the boy was unconscious upon arriving at the hospital at 12.45pm on Wednesday.

"Checks revealed that there was internal bleeding in the head believed to have been hit by a hard object," he told a press conference here Friday.

Sum said investigations revealed that the child was taken to the baby sitter''s house by his mother at 7am in a healthy condition.

The woman was being remanded for seven days beginning Friday to facilitate investigations under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

-- BERNAMA