FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) - A 24-year-old Fort Wayne mother is behind bars, after police say they found her three malnourished children covered in feces.

Twenty four-year-old Amanda Alvather is charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent.

Fort Wayne police say they found her three children, all under the age of three, covered in feces and being fed only sugar water last October at a West Creighton Street home.

Court documents show the one-year-old girl and three-year-old girl had reddened skin consistent with frostbite.

Officials say there was no heat in the home.

Records indicate none of the children could speak and had delayed motor skills when they were taken.

The children's grandmother, Ronda Stevens, say the two-year-old boy, who suffers from Down syndrome, was so malnourished he weighed only 13 pounds when taken from his mother.

“I didn't think the little guy would make it until the weekend I really didn't,” said Stevens.

Stevens says when he was placed in her arms last fall; he was so small, she was afraid she would hurt him.

“I thought I was going to break him. He was nothing but bones and I mean you could feel every bone in his body. He was just real thin. It was like an Ethiopian child or like an abandoned dog that hadn't eaten for days and days.”

Alvather appears before a judge Monday, where she'll be formally charged.

The father, Richard Mann, says he wants custody of his chidren. Mann tells Indiana's NewsCenter he knew something was wrong when he noticed the declining health of his children.

"I tried everything I could do before it hit this way so my kids wouldn't have to be in child services," said Mann. "I wanted to get custody, I was talking to several lawyers, but we don't have the money. We really can't do anything."

Mann separated from Alvather in 2008, but was ordered by a court not to have contact with his former girlfriend. That meant only periodic contact with his children. That's when he says, the situation began to go "down hill."

Officials with Child Protective Services are inspecting family members' homes to see if they are suitable for children.

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