When Jaden James, two, suffered an allergic reaction and needed to be hospitalized during a visit to mom Britney Spears’ hometown in Louisiana this weekend there was speculation that his dad Kevin Federline would fly out to check on him. Jayden had to stay in the hospital overnight and although there aren’t a lot of details about his condition the fact that Britney and her family chose to drive him to the hospital instead of wait for an ambulance makes it sound serious. TMZ reported that Britney’s ex was MIA and that it was hard for Britney’s family to get in touch with Federline to let him know about Jayden’s illness. K-Fed claims that he was in constant contact with the family though, which would mean he knew about it and chose not to rush to be by his son’s side. Either way, he’s not looking like the most devoted parent.
Federline’s attorney has responded to the incident, and said that accidents happen with children and that there are no immediate plans for a hearing to discuss custody in light of the emergency room visit. True to lawyerly form, he doesn’t rule out using the incident for their own purposes in the future though:
Longtime Kevin Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan exclusively tells E! News that, as far as he knows, 2-year-old Jayden James’ emergency trip to the hospital was most likely the result of a food allergy—and Federline, who was immediately notified of the incident, has no plans “as of now” to seek an explanation from his ex in court.
“I think that whatever it is, a food allergy or some other case, we don’t know yet,” Kaplan said Tuesday. “We’re pleased that someone was aware enough to see that he was having some sort of reaction and do what was necessary to make sure there were no chances taken and got Jayden to the appropriate facility and got the appropriate evaluation to be timely…
“We’re not going to jump to conclusions right now.
“When you have kids it would be impossible for there to be some theoretical concept of negligence going on—a child falls down, anything that happens that way,” Kaplan said.
“I don’t anticipate there being a hearing. I anticipate that Kevin and Britney as concerned parents will exchange information and satisfy themselves that what happened was a freak occurrence and do what they have to do to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
“The kids will be back with Kevin shortly,” he added, but “not yet.”
“I don’t know whether it’s today or in the next couple of days…“If it appeared that someone knowingly—either knew or should have known there was a risk or a danger that was presented and didn’t do anything to prevent that—then that may give rise to a hearing after it was first explored by the parents and addressed administratively without going to court…
“You would have to agree that progress is being made and there has been no other incidents besides this incident that I’m aware of that indicates that the time that both parents have is unwarranted by the custody.
“Kids get hurt. Kids get sick. Kids fall down, and by definition it’s their duty to do things that they’re not supposed to do. They’re kids. Especially at 2 and 3, these things will happen. The point is for the parents to try to minimize the possibility of these things happening.”
[From E! Online]
That seems like a sensible response and shows how far Kevin and Britney have come in terms of co-parenting their children. Earlier this year they seemed to be in and out of court every other week trying to resolve multiple custody issues that just compounded. Now they realize that they have to work together and that accidents happen with their children. You still wonder why Kevin didn’t fly out there, though. Maybe he was partying and by the time he found out about it Jayden’s condition had stabilized. Little kids can sure go through a lot of urgent medical issues, but they often pass as quickly as they come up.
Kevin Federline is shown picking up his oldest son, Sean Preston, 3, at school on Halloween, 10/31/08. Credit: Fame
I’ll tell you why.. he didn’t fly out there because he was notified about it right away, probably got reassured by the doctor, realised Jayden was taken care of and.. chilled out. Why should he have rushed there? The kid probably was in distress but never in major risk… so why being overemotional about it? And, I’m glad he doesn’t sound like he wants to use an accident against his former spouse. As the lawyer said, kids that age do get hurt… no reason to rush there as if they were dying or something, no reason to point fingers either. I’m glad he is so cool about it.
God, it never occurred to me that he WOULD fly there or that he would take Britney to court over it. A two year old’s life is one mishap and boo-boo after another, they just sort of stumble their way into childhood. A kid having hives is definitely not a reason for a parent to drop everything and fly halfway across the US to be at his side, when the kid already has a mother and grandparents present. Hives are hardly life-threatening. And hardly the result of any neglect on Britney’s part.
Shoot fire, prolly just got a bad batch of cheetos!
Is KF earning money of his own yet, or is he still living off Britney’s money?
Exactly. There’s no need for Kevin to go rushing 3,000 miles over an allergic reaction. If Britney is making as much progress as everyone says, she should be able to handle it on her own.
Jeezum Crow – It’s a simple food allergy. Mommy & Daddy both reacted appropriately – why would this end up in court… 😕
i hope kevin was out blowing off steam.. it’s got to be hard being the “stable” parent of two toddlers and his other ankle biters!
despite all the trash that gets talked about him, IMO he’s a good dad. we don’t see all kinds of publicity photos and the kids aren’t paraded out for the paps (like mommie does).
and kfed wasn’t the one who needed court mandated parenting classes. he and his lawyer will take action if needed, very wise and compassionate.
By the time he actually GOT to Louisiana, the ‘crisis’ would probably have been over. It was a mild food allergy. That’s it.
I watchted the whole “Chaotic” thing one day when there was a marathon on and absolutely nothing else on tv. From what I could see KF wasn’t really all that interested in Brit. She was definatley the pursuer. Flew him over to Europe while she was on tour. She didn’t care that he had a bun in the oven and all. She even kinda taunted him and called him mean cuase he wanted to go back to the states. At that time I can see why he left Shar for Brit. This was pre-crazy smoking hot superstar Brit with a ton of money. Really what would you do? I don’t think he’s a bad guy at all. He’s really proved himself to be a decent human being in this past year or so. I’m glad he’s not a scum bag that would freak out over a common child hood thing and use this to hurt Brit more. Shows alot about character.
I honestly believe that the vast majority of people who go all Chicken Little over issues like this with other people’s kids…do so because they’ve never raised a toddler before.
They don’t understand how very common and everyday these little mishaps and injuries and allergies and sniffles are. Sure there are the actual “overprotective” people, but the vast lot of the overreactors are simply folks who have not lived the realistic day-by-day of parenthood.
Of COURSE Kevin didn’t fly out there. The kid got hives. It was dealt with. Kevin didn’t have any need nor would it have been even a good thing for him to rush out there and make it into a big deal. It would’ve disrupted the boy’s time with his mother and undermined his confidence in mommy. It also would’ve scared him to see everyone close in and act like something horrible was wrong with him.
Kevin’s not being there was not a commentary on his devotion as a father…in any small way. It was a commentary on the fact that he’s got some common sense.
I thought this might be an issue when this happened on her custody visitation. This could be used to question her attentiveness depending on what the alergic reaction was to. Hope things work out for the best for these two