SINGAPORE - An Indonesian maid was jailed for four months on Monday for hitting a two-year-old child on his face and head with a plastic Lego container cover.

Bahija Tunnisa, 24, admitted to ill-treating the boy by doing an act which caused him unnecessary physical pain at her employer's home in Hougang on June 26 this year.

A district court heard that Bahija was alone in the flat looking after the victim and his four-year-old brother when their 55-year-old grandmother called and told her to get the children ready to go out.

But the victim refused to change his clothes or listen to her instructions.

Angered by the victim, she grabbed a yellow coloured 18cm-long Lego container cover and used it to hit him on his face, head and torso multiple times. She also used a T-shirt to hit the child several times on the torso.

He was crying throughout the episode.

A neighbour who happened to walk past the unit saw what she did and later told the victim's grandmother when she came home.

The grandmother found red marks on the victim's body. When she confronted Bahija, she denied any wrongdoing.

The victim was taken to a clinic the next day and a police report was lodged.

The child was later brought to KK Women's and Children's Hospital where he was found to have bruises on his face, arms and body.

Bahija could have been fined up to $4,000 and/or jailed for up to four years for ill-treating the child.