DateTime Fields Problem

Does the $c variable contain an instance of the Entity class?

yes it does contain  an entity class of comments and i display them with a join to the users table  in order to display the correct user comment

Have you defined the $dates property of the class? As here.

PHP Code:

class User extends Entity
{
    protected $dates = ['created_at', 'updated_at', 'deleted_at'];
} 


https://codeigniter.com/user_guide/model...e-mutators