KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Police said it appears a rat or another rodent attacked a 7-week-old girl in her crib on Sunday morning.

Officers were called to the 4100 block of Montgall Avenue at about 8:45 a.m. The girl's parents told investigators that they awoke to sounds coming from her sleep apnea monitor. When they checked the baby, they found she was lying in a pool of blood and vomit.

Police said the baby suffered serious bites to her nose and lip, but she is expected to recover.

Officers said they found rodent feces in the crib, and they believe that a rat likely caused the injury to the baby.

Rats Are Very Smart Animals

Michael Swoyer with the Kansas City Health Department said the baby's vomit probably drew the rat to her.

"Unfortunately, when babies vomit, they tend to vomit out their nose and that's why the rat bit the nose and bit the upper lip and everything," Swoyer said.

Swoyer, who supervises the city's rat control program, said the type of rat roaming the sewers and streets of Kansas City is called the Norway rat. It can easily scale a three-foot wall and its teeth can destroy just about anything.

"They can chew through lead pipes. They can chew through wood, poorly cured concrete, just about everything. Their teeth are harder than iron," Swoyer said. "They're very smart animals -- extremely smart; about as smart as a dog."

He said he's helping the family whose baby was attacked.

"I visited the family this morning and did kind of a canvass of the neighborhood," Swoyer said.

He said he saw vacant houses and bags of trash tossed on the ground, both of which are havens for rats. He said rats can get inside almost anything.

"They can squeeze through areas the size of a quarter because they can collapse their skeletons," Swoyer said.

He said they can also tread water for three days and swim up to a half-mile.

"I don't mean to make every body sleep badly at night, but the old myth about them coming up through the toilet -- that's true," Swoyer said.

He said a rat attacking a baby in its crib is unusual, but it's not impossible and not necessarily anyone's fault.

"It's a tragic thing. It's very tragic, but we're doing what we can," Swoyer said.

He said an exterminating company will spray the neighborhood with rat poison.

If you see rats or want more information about preventing rats from coming into your home, contact Michael Swoyer at 816-513-6010 or e-mail him at michael_swoyer@kcmo.org.