CINCINNATI, Ohio -- A Cincinnati mother has been convicted of child endangering after she admitted to binding the wrists and ankles of two of her children to keep them from hoarding food.

29-year-old Kena Ross told police she was trying to make welfare groceries last until the end of the month, so she used plastic handcuffs on two of her seven children to keep them out of food.

Ross said she had tried to lock the fridge, but that didn't work, so she bound at least two of her children, 4 and 5, often while she slept.

Doctors discovered cuff marks when Ross took her 4-year-old son to be treated for burns -- two weeks after they happened.  Ross and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Christopher Gray, said the child was burned when he stuck his hand in a running washing machine.

Prosecutors say the children in the home were all very thin.  When the mistreatment was discovered in April, the 5-year-old, twin 4-year-olds, and an infant were in the home, and Ross was pregnant with another child.   

Ross will be sentenced Nov. 10 and faces up to 10 years in prison.

Gray is scheduled to face a judge Monday on similar charges.

Three of Ross' children have been placed in foster care and the other four are with relatives.