Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy Blogger:Being Sane Takes Too Much Work

Munchausen Syndrome by proxy is a relatively rare form of child abuse in order to seek attention and sympathy for the abuser.  It is an obsessive want to create symptoms for the victim in order to obtain repeated medication or even operations.  The parent or caregiver deliberately misleads others(particularly medical professionals) and may go as far as to actually cause symptoms in the child through poisoning, medication or even suffocation.  In most cases (85%) the mother is responsible.  Diagnosis is made extremely difficult due to the abuser to manipulate doctors and induce symptoms in the child.  Often, the perpetrator is familiar with the medical profession and knowledgeable about how to bring on illness or impairment.  Most of the children are preschoolers and are an equal number of boys and girls.  Some victims are at risk of repeating the cycle of abuse.  Treatment usually involves individual and family therapy.  If the abuser doesn't admit to wrongdoing, psychological treatment has little chance of helping.  In some cases, perpetrators were themselves abused physically and/or sexually as children.  They may have come from families where being sick was a way to get love.  They may have also grown up being treated like he or she wasn't a person with rights or feelings.  When the parent or caretaker's abuse is discovered, the child protective services are notified.  Steps will likely to be taken to move the victim and any other children in the home to a safer environment.  If treatment is effective, the child may be slowly reintroduced to the home while closely monitoring the child's safety.  At the same time, the ongoing use of medical services is closely monitored by medical and mental health and child protection professionals.  Sometimes, the primary care doctor will be notified by the insurance company of future use of medical services by the victim.  Also the doctor may be notified when the child is absent.  In order to have an excused absence, school officials may require an approval from the medical professional.  In severe cases of this type of child abuse, prosecution and incarceration of the perpetrator may be taken and access to the victim permanently prevented.