But a day after two-year-old Tanilla Warrick-Deaves was knocked unconscious during an allegedly brutal and sustained attack, her mother Donna Deaves thought "it was a bit late" to get medical help.
And Tanilla was better off dead than to have lived as a vegetable, Deaves told police.
Two days after the little girl was badly beaten by another person at her Watanobbi home on August 25, 2011, Deaves finally phoned emergency services and the child was taken to hospital.
She died there as a result of blunt-force head injuries.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, Deaves, 29, pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty of her daughter's manslaughter on the grounds of criminal negligence.
According to an agreed statement of facts tendered in court, Tanilla was subjected to horrific abuse at the hands of Deaves' partner, who cannot be named for legal reasons and who will stand trial for murder later this year.
A post-mortem examination showed Tanilla suffered "sustained physical violence" for several weeks before her death, consistent with her being whipped and beaten.
The man allegedly beat her up on several occasions, made the toddler stand unsupported for hours on end as punishment for soiling herself and constantly forced her to run laps of the lounge room, despite her suffering from bowed legs.
He whipped her with items including his belt, an extension cord, thongs, a broom and a hairbrush.
Tanilla was "often dressed in a full body suit that covered her arms and legs to hide the bruises that covered her body", the documents said.
About a week before her death, the man allegedly told a friend, "I've hit her with an extension cord, a strap, a jug cord, a wooden spoon and she doesn't learn. Look I'll make her scream...", before he threatened Tanilla with his belt.
On August 25, he allegedly whipped Tanilla with a cord as she ran laps around the lounge room in the presence of Deaves before he put her under a cold shower.
He then banged her head against the shower glass until her mouth was bloody as the toddler screamed "No, no, no", the documents said.
Deaves told police she tried to intervene but the man slapped Deaves across the face before he held Tanilla upside down over the toilet bowl and threatened to put her head in the water.
He then allegedly kicked the little girl across the hall, causing her to hit her head against some cupboards.
When Tanilla lost consciousness, the pair put her in a pram and kept her there for two days - shielding her from the notice of friends and family.
After Tanilla's death, Deaves maintained she had died as a result of a fall until she was arrested in October.
The doctor who carried out the autopsy believed Tanilla "may well have survived if she had received prompt medical treatment".
Deaves will face a sentence hearing in September.
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