In the most extreme cases, the parents are eventually prosecuted for child abuse. Often parents claim their child is suffering from seizures, which is almost impossible to prove or disprove. ‘These aren’t just anxious parents,’ says Dr Danya Glaser, a child psychiatrist at Great Ormond Street Hospital and an expert in fabricated illness. ‘Some were sick as a child, or a doctor failed to spot an illness in a loved-one,’ says Dr Glaser. ‘But if parents do not accept the careful investigations, and persist in believing their child is sick, parents must be told they are harming their child.

Source: The Nation March 06, 2021 23:03 UTC