Mean mothers bash 'ugly babies' in secret Facebook group

A US mother has exposed a secret Facebook group that purports to trade and sell toddlers' clothing, instead hosting ugly and vicious threads about the appearances of some children.

Melissa Antenucci has exposed the group of mothers who posted pictures of children they'd found on Facebook, often those of their friends, and wrote demeaning messages about them.

Ellen Veach experienced the hurtful threads first-hand after a photo of her daughter was taken and mocked by members of the group.

"At first, I was in shock. I couldn't believe it. It was basically just a head shot of one of the pictures I posted in my album and it was next to another picture of a cartoon character basically," she said.

"So I'm posting pictures of my son's first day in kindergarten or Ivy's new outfit or something just naively posting it up there so my friends can see, not realising there's a group that takes these pictures and targets these children and makes fun of them. Like that's just something I wouldn't even think a mother or grown woman would do."

She says some of the children mocked by the private group were disabled, and the accused 'mean moms' were aware. One even commented "I'm probably going to hell for that."

Antenucci is now on a mission to expose the insensitive parents who she accuses of "bullying babies", some of whom are premature or disabled.

"The things that these mothers said were the most horrific things that I have ever seen, being a mum and knowing that they are mums," Antenucci told WPBF News.

"We have zero tolerance. You are bullying babies. You're not even bullying your peers. You're bullying babies. No."

Antenucci discovered the group after a friend accidentally found the thread and shared screenshots of the posts online to shame the 'mean moms'.

After Antenucci complained to Facebook, the mothers involved in the secret group deactivated their accounts.