Why are so many Mothers of children with invisable medical conditions getting accused of Munchausens by Proxy/FII?

[BuildUpMyFence]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2554867/The-schools-spy-Munchausen-Mums-Teachers-accuse-lying-childrens-autism-attention.html

What is going on in child protection training that so many Professionals are so obsessed with this type of witch hunt?

"So many"? That's one case, and given it was the nursery and the lad is well into his teens, rather historical. I remember the "Satanic abuse" cases, but we're all past that now.

Ruddy Dail Mail.

Can't comment on the case. I thought that the obsession with alleged Munchausens was past history now. Seems I was wrong - v depressing. This puts parents off taking their child to the doctor or hospital when it is actually needed.

There are a lot of parents with children who have a diagnosis of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome who are accused of this too. I have been to the conferences and heard the parents discuss it.

Well, perhaps we need to ask an MP to lobby HoC for more funding for genetic check ups prior to SS getting involved? If a child is presented to a hospital X amount of times with similar issues and there is a possible medical explanation (maybe that is too broad - testing for Ricketts/Vit D/Ehlers Danlos and any others where a test from the hospital can rule out abuse) could be done and then there would be even less accidents of this nature.

Sadly not much us mere mortals can do about this. The only MP we know of is sadly putting his power to shame and lobbying to completely destruct all systems connected to SS and medical professions involved, so that more cases like this are likely to happen as they are allowed less funding.

I and several others who had this accusation have spoken to that MP. He did nothing other than take our details, he promised meetings and all sorts it never happened.

Yes with EDS it is the two accusations, the non accidental injury and the FII. In the last conference one parent quoted a paediatrician with an interest in EDS as stating 60% of families they see has been reported at some point to social services.

If someone else knows of another MP who would be willing to look into this would they please let us know?

My view on it is that it often starts of as a genuine concern, and then the family/parent become so entrenched in a certain view and become very obsessive about it to the extent that rightly or wrongly professionals stop listening and start seeing the parent as the problem rather than the child's medical condition.

Whether or not we call it FII or Munchys or whatever, there is an issue of the 'annoying obsessive parent' not being listened to, despite what may be very genuine concerns, because of the way they go about things.

As usual the DM has been irresponsible in it's coverage.

and OP

please don't go to John Hemming.

He has become such a joke he will harm your case rather than support it.

That is the thing, do these people have no common sense, maybe the Autistic child has an undiagnosed autistic Mother?

Maybe the EDS parent had their needs ignored and wants better for their child?

For me it was historical and done and dusted. I am concerned for the future my children will be parents one day, this has to be sorted out.

Westmorland, very well put.

There was an article recently about a certain la that had a high incidence of munchausens but I can't seem to find it. Will keep looking.

I would agree that often parents of AS children may be on the AS themselves.

I'm not sure that FII or MBP are good descriptions of what is happening. I think it is HUGE misunderstandings between professionals and a particular group of parents who might not get all of societal norms 100% of the time (and lets face it , who does even in non stressful situations!)

This group of parents are more likely to be well informed via internet, personal research, non emotive sources etc and professionals sometimes just don't get that.

or are scared by it

There is also a high incidence of AS in EDS families too.

Well FII is what they are getting accused of. The problem is as you describe HUGE misunderstandings of Professionals of what is going on with some families, who don't seem to use their common sense.

Not sure if you have seen Child Protection Resource's website, but they are hoping to encourage debate on how to make the system work better on the sadly limited funds available. I think if you posted in there (perhaps without the DM link and just used the facts and figures) it could be highlighted as a genuine concern. All sorts of professionals are using that site now, as far as I know, and perhaps someone could help if you posted a comment? I know they are keen to get everyone in the system together to discuss these issues and try to make people aware of all sides. I think that is one of the few non-bias sites around t'interweb at the moment!

I think what doesn't help the EDS Mum's are the issues revolving around the secondary conditions to EDS, the sleep apnoea and PoTS, they affect the functioning of the brain, and as a result communication.

l will state at this point that I am one of those said professionals - I have had other professionals ring me with concerns about FII. Usually I will point out that they have not looked at the whole picture as to WHY a family may have got so far down a line that is seen to be unacceptable or 'strange' by the professional.

I'm not saying either side is right or wrong, just that courtesy to other human beings, empathy, listening and understanding would go a long way to solving a lot of these cases.

I'm not denying FII or MPB doesn't exist, but they are the cases that prove the rule rather than are the norm.

I would be happy to do that and I could ask some other people to do so too. do you just put in Child Protection Resources?

We have this woman who has contacted EDSUK who we are not happy about, a few of us think she is along the lines of JH. Look we didn't know about JH and this woman, we as a community are trying to sort this out, and we as parents can see these people are not helpful at all.

I am guessing that FII/MPB are probably a symptom of a personality disorder personally. The numbers of people being accused of this are out of proportion, you can't have half of a population of people with one rare condition doing non accidental injury and FII.

I am one of the 'founders' lowlytechmonkey of child protection resource. If you want to have a look at our site and see if you want to contribute something you would be more than welcome.

childprotectionresource.org.uk

but I am a mumsnetter first and foremost. CPresource wouldn't have existed without threads like this on MN.

Yes, it should come up. Quite a new site, but some interesting bits. If you look under the Myth Busting section you will see why a certain MP's is really barking up the wrong tree. Most people associated with him trot out similar to any of those points, so you can usually spot them a mile off. That and the clear lack of facts and figures to support their claims, of course!

I am expecting some paperwork from that DR I mentioned earlier, is there an address I can sent the research to? I can also link some long talks from the expert in the condition that may help you. It will mean investing time if someone will be interested in doing so?

I think if you want to get opinions from specialists you need to follow this up yourself. As I said, if you post in CPR you may get a response, but I don't think anyone is going to do a whole lot of leg work for a stranger on the internet. No offence, but you could be anyone!

we are just volunteers and have full time jobs so if someone wants to write something for us that we think is useful and credible we will always publish it, but we simply don't have the time to write something from scratch that we don't know a huge amount about.

If you look at the website you can find contact detail there - we get spammed if we post them directly on to mumsnet .

I think it is a really important point you have and probably one of the main causes of genuine concerns about miscarriages of justice in the CP system. if you or you can can find someone willing to write something balanced for us about it we will more than happily publish it as it is such an important point.

I was going to send links to talks of a Professor for them to watch if they were interested, if not no worries.

I was going to send research from a DR, that I requested for our new GP so they would understand the condition, not many do. I asked fro a copy I was going to send this again if someone had an interest, again if they are not interested then no worries.

I got the impression you were after evidence and this seems to not be what you are after.

There is nothing there about FII?

Ok I get you, I will see if anyone else is interested. I can contribute a little, though I get told off on here that I am not always easy to understand at times.