Clothing company Kyte Baby tries to fend off boycott after denying mom's request to work from preemie son's hospital

The popular baby clothing company Kyte Baby is trying to head off a consumer boycott this morning, after the family of an employee said she was forced to give up her job to be in the hospital with her premature newborn.

Marissa Hughes took to social media Friday to thank supporters after they learned that she was out of a job at the clothing brand: "I just wanted to come on here and thank each and every person who has loved and supported us so much over these last few days," she said.

Hughes' family said she was fired after not returning from maternity leave in order to care for her newly-adopted son. He was premature, weighed 1 pound, and was in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nine hours from their Dallas home.

According to Kyte Baby's policy, an employee like Hughes – who had been with the company for at least six months – is allowed two weeks of paid leave. But when that time was up, Hughes' request to work remotely from the NICU was denied. 

When Hughes' story went viral, the online backlash against the company was swift.

Kyte Baby CEO Ying Liu posted not one, but two apology videos, after her first attempt was widely panned as insincere:

@kytebaby ♬ original sound - kytebaby

In her second TikTok video, Liu said of the first, "I basically just read it – it wasn't sincere … Sincerely, what went wrong was how we treated Marissa."

@kytebaby ♬ original sound - kytebaby

In that second apology, Liu went on to say Kyte Baby will continue to pay Hughes and offered her a position with the company, in addition to announcing policy changes they hope to enact by Feb. 1. Hughes declined the job offer.

Hughes' response, posted on Facebook: "We don't think it would be appropriate for me to go back."

CBS News reached out to Kyte Baby for additional comments, but has not yet heard back.  

In:
• Dallas

Nikki Battiste

Nikki Battiste is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.

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