A new report urges medical professionals to lean the signs of an unusual form of child abuse.
Caregiver-fabricated illness in children (CFIC) is when a caregiver "fakes or induces an illness in a child," CBC News reported. This can lead to unnecessary trips to the doctor, and potentially harmful treatments.
"It's hard for people to actually conceive that caregivers would fabricate illness," Dr. Harriet MacMillan, a pediatrician and researcher at McMaster University, told CBC News. "If you think about it, people working with children are basically trained to trust the histories that are provided to them."
The researchers' report said the most common faked illnesses were: "rashes, allergic reactions, urinary tract infections and vomiting - all possible indicators of poisoning - as well as breathing and eating problems," according to CBC News.
Parents' can also invent emotional and psychological issues in their children, such as ADHD, leaning disabilities, or even sexual abuse.
"I think what's important in this article that we really try to highlight is that it's not just symptoms of physical illness, but also psychiatric illness," MacMillan said.
The article urges healthcare providers to see if the reported symptoms align with the supposed illness, take a close look at medical records, and even interview CFIC suspected children one-on-one.
CFIC happens in about "0.5 to two out of every 100,000 children," CBC News reported.
The researchers said many people who fake illness in their children are "mothers [who] often work in, or are very knowledgeable about, the healthcare field. Many yearn for the attention of doctors and nurses. Some have a history of feigning being ill themselves."
The condition is technically called Munchausen Syndrome, but the article authors believe this term takes attention away from the children, who are the real victims in this scenario.
"We are saying that we use this particularly terminology because it emphasizes the child's exposure to risk and harm rather than the motivation of the caregiver who is doing this," MacMillan said. "People working with children need to recognize this as a kind of child maltreatment."
In Oklahoma, a woman believed to be suffering from the conition subjected her daughter to unecessay procedures. These included "six MRIs, each of which required anesthesia, a spinal tap, EKGs, CT scans, bladder studies and physical therapy sessions," NewsOn6 reported.
"Any of those procedures would be painful to any adult," Assistant District Attorney Sarah McAmis, told NewsOn6 "You put that in the mind of a child, who has no control over his or her situation, and no ability to get him or herself out of that situation, and it's really just horrifying and really just sad to know what these kids experience."
*This Article Has Been Edited To Include A Change
