Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome...Mother Poisons Child...
By birthlady
@birthlady (5609)
United States
January 3, 2007 10:12am CST
Mother is caught putting substances into her ill 19 month old daughter's IV line. Suspicious of this mother, police secretly videotaped her as she tampered with her daughter's IV line (a feeding tube) 3 times! This poor child was repeatedly hospitalized, underwent upper GI and lower GI barium tests, which all came out normal. The child was repeatedly hospitalized for failure to gain weight and vomiting. Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome is a rare but serious psychiatric disorder. A child's primary caregiver, usually the mother, will create illness or disease in the child to get attention to the mother.
This particular mother is under arrest for child endangerment. She has stated she wants her child back in her custody. Should she have custody returned to her? What do you think?
8 people like this
46 responses
@SageMother (2277)
• United States
3 Jan 07
I have worked with children whose mothers have this problem.
I really think removing the child from the home, permanently, is what is best and often the wiseest choice, even though that rarely happens. The funding is often not available for proper placement in a foster home and adoptions can be quite rare once the child is no longer an infant.
The parent needs help and serious medication. That need for attention is not a cry for help. It is a miswiring of the mind with chemical issues attached. The parent does not deserve prison, though. She is desperately ill and needs care. The biggest problem, next to the exisitng one, is that most mothers will have other children and repeat the cycle. They cannot be forced into sterilization.
3 people like this
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
I have also worked with both mothers and children. A judge may adjudicate sterilization.
1 person likes this
@bonnielass (484)
• United States
3 Jan 07
Until the mother gets help and has it under control the child should be places someplace else where he or she is safe. If not the childs life is in danger. I do believe with treatment the family can be reunited as what the mother has is an illness and isnt doing it on purpose.
2 people like this
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
I wish you were right. There's cases of it going on for years. One woman even got a "Mother of the Year" award and her little girl was a poster child of medical suffering--then it was exposed and mom's in jail still denying wrongdoing.
2 people like this
@ArsonCuff (3114)
• United States
3 Jan 07
I know a woman who has had her kids taken away from her because she was accused of having thi disorder and harming her always sick son...it is odd though that if they truly thought her guilty of such a thing that they would press some sort of endangerment charges against her or something not just take the kids...the disorder is so rare that many do not actually accept it as being real...I know it can exist but sometimes Dr.s are so eager to make studies and a name for themselves that they create problems where there are none...the sick boy who was taken away from the mother I know is still always sick and yet they do not give him back to her and say sorry, they were wrong when it seems that it is so
2 people like this
@MakDomMom (1474)
• United States
3 Jan 07
No she should never have this child or any other child in her care again. If you can't care for the ones that you love properly then you shouldn't be allowed to "try again". This is so sad that people feel they need to harm another person in order to get attention.
@Bigdougieb (147)
•
3 Jan 07
I have to agree. It must be really depressing having a child like this but she should accept it and love her child as it is.
If she can't do that, like you say, she should never get it or any other child.
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
Perhaps its a good idea for her to be court ordered to stay away from all children.
@nobodyspecial (1011)
• United States
3 Jan 07
This is a psychiatric disorder, and strange as it may seem it does not preclude that if someone suffering from this condition will act against all children in the family or another child other than the one that is currently under duress.
No she should not have this child in her custody, at least not at this time. This is obviously the child her illness has chosen to be acted out upon.
Whether or not she ever should be allowed to regain custody of this child remains to be seen. How effective treatment of her condition is would affect the outcome of the family unit.
She should be remanded to pyschariatric care for evaluation and treatment.
2 people like this
@coolcatzz (1587)
• Canada
3 Jan 07
I heard about this last night. I was trying to explain it to my daughter. I first learned about this years ago and to this day I still cannot understand it. They do it for attention but what a horrible way to seek out attention. This woman really needs help. I don't know if this is something that can be cured. Perhaps with a lot of councelling.
2 people like this
@kgwat70 (13388)
• United States
3 Jan 07
There is absolutely no way that this person should have custody of her daugther. She should be in jail and stay there or be locked up in a mental institution. I feel sorry and sad for the child who is suffering. I am not familiar with this disorder but the mother has no right to do that to her daughter.
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
Yes, she is in jail. I hope her child stays in someone else's custody.
1 person likes this
@sexysilver (928)
• United States
3 Jan 07
The safety of the child must come first and foremost. Children have actually been known to DIE when a mother suffers from Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome!
My daughter has been hospitalized for FIVE CONSECUATIVE MONTHS, from the time she was born until now (& I don't know when she'll get to come home), but my daughter is in the hospital due to problems at birth that required surgeries & a watchful nurses eye who would know how to handle her medical equipment (ranging from a breathing machine to feeding tube to monitors).
I have never tampered with my daughters equipment, but I have (with nurses permission & guideance) unhooked & re-hooked her feeding tube to change her clothing.
This woman needs help & does NOT need to get custody back of her child.
1 person likes this
@rubypatson (1840)
• India
3 Jan 07
thats terrible, i think the child should be kept safe from the mother, and as this is a medical codition no one can blame the mother, the ones around the child should take more care to prvent such things from happening
1 person likes this
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
It's almost not preventable unless mother and child are seperated. These mothers sneak to find ways.
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
It's almost not preventable unless mother and child are seperated. These mothers sneak to find ways.
@shiboleth (270)
• Canada
3 Jan 07
This is a very sad and terrible thing.
I beleive in the transformative power of God. If she were to truly repent and pray for forgiveness and aid she might be able to turn her life around and save her child from a life of suffering. But without true repentance she cannot be helped and the child will only suffer further.
1 person likes this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
3 Jan 07
No. Not until she undergoes Psychiatric care and has had to wait a certain length of time to prove she is not longer a danger to her child.
1 person likes this
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
I think its too big a risk to allow her to prove she's no longer a danger to her child, because that means she has the opportunity to harm her child again.
1 person likes this
@kathy77 (7486)
• Australia
3 Jan 07
Oh this is a dreadful crime to do to a young child or anyone never mind her own child. I believe that someone like this should never be able to have children so she would never be able to harm any child never mind her own, and no way should she have her child back or any other child in my view. The child is so innocent and the mother needs to go and stay in a psychiatric hospital.
1 person likes this
@shywolf (4514)
• United States
3 Jan 07
This is so awful! I have never heard of such a thing before. A mother trying to poison her own child just to bring attention to herself? That is so very sad. I feel so awful for this child, and I would not be surprised if the child is taken away from her permanently. It doesn't sound to me like she is fit to have a child of her own. At least not until she has undergone some psychiatric help, that is! I really hope that she gets the help that she apparently so dearly needs.
1 person likes this
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
4 Jan 07
This most current case has been in the news, that's how I learned of this one, but as a former EMT at a hospital, I've personally experienced watching a mother like this be caught.
1 person likes this
@patootie (3592)
•
3 Jan 07
Munchausens is a terrible syndrome isn't it .. it makes folks harm the ones they love to get the attention they themselves crave ... thankfully most doctors now know about the syndrome and when a child or elderly person presents with mystery illnesses the carer will be a suspect ...
1 person likes this
@ladysurvivor (4746)
• Malaysia
4 Jan 07
Behind every wrongdoing, there must be a reason to it. People are not naturally bad. Most of the time outside factors contribute to their bad behaviour. For instance, why the mother needed attention in the first place? The answer is... she feels she has been neglected! So, first of all the mother should be given the priority. She's sick and she must be given treatment with love and tender. Never give her a cruel judgement because she will feel much more hated by us. I believe after the treatment she will be as sober and as loving as other mothers can be.
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
4 Jan 07
You are very compassionate, and I appreciate that. I wish mothers with this disorder would be as sober and loving as other mothers can be.
@jenbatres (799)
• United States
3 Jan 07
That is a tough decision, I don't think she is capable of providing for her child. If the mother got the help she needed she may be able to provide for her daughter. Maybe they could help the mother get better and allow the mother and daughter to live in a facility together. They could be monitored until someone could decide if the mother is capable of taking care of the child.
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
Correct, the child must be safe, no amount of care/treatment of the mother is ever enough.
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
3 Jan 07
Mothers with this disorder are very sneaky and know all the ropes of how to secretly inflict illness on a child.
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
4 Jan 07
The children suffer terrible atrocities at the hands of the mother, and then also painful medical proceduress...
