A mother who confessed to killing her 5-year-old daughter missed a criminal court appearance Thursday because she is on suicide watch, detectives said, but she made it to family court to fight for her other children.

Rosa Gonzalez, 41, has been charged with injury to a child in the death of her 5-year-old daughter, Candy Flores.

Houston police were called to the Pier Club apartment complex, 9950 Club Creek Drive near Woodfair Drive shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Candy was found dead on the floor of her bedroom, investigators said.

Police said Gonzalez and one of Candy's older sisters told police that Candy fell from a bathroom toilet on to a tile floor and hit her head, which caused her death.

Gonzalez was questioned for several hours and her story kept changing, detectives said. She confessed to beating Candy and slamming her head on the bathtub, police said.

Investigators said Gonzalez has 10 children, but she only abused Candy. Police said Gonzalez's other children told them that their mother would hit Candy with random objects and tie her up with a rope and place her into a bedroom, where she was left for hours. Detectives said that Candy was very malnourished and that she looked like a 3-year-old even though she was about to turn 6.

Children's Protective Services said Gonzalez's six children between the ages of 10 months and 17 years old have been placed in foster care.

Gonzalez, wearing her jail scrubs, appeared at an emergency custody hearing Thursday to beg a judge to release her children to relatives, but the judge denied that request.

Three of Gonzalez' children are adults.

The family has a past with CPS. Officials said workers were called out to the family's home in October 2005 because of allegations of neglect of a child who was 15 years old at the time. No abuse was found and the case was closed, CPS officials said. In July 2006, CPS workers visited the family after Candy, who was 3 months old at the time, became violently ill. Doctors noted that Candy was given cow's milk instead of baby formula.

"We did get involved," CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin said. "We got the mother in parenting class. All the children in the home were removed and placed with their fathers while we got mom parenting classes."

A year after Gonzalez completed parenting classes, she was reunited with her children and the case was closed.

"Since 2006, we have not received a report about this family," Olguin said. "No one has called us."

All of the children lived in the apartment with their mother at the time of Candy's death. One of the adult children also had four children, ages 2 months to 5 years old, who lived in the apartment. Those children have been placed in foster care.

Gonzalez is in jail without bond. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a hold on her because agents have questions about her immigration status.