Münchausen By Proxy

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Article Summary Disorder topic: Münchausen by proxy The article "Münchausen: Unusual Suspects" (Psychology Today, September 01, 2007), written by Pamela Weintraub, discuss different situations involving Münchausen by proxy. This syndrome was named after Baron Von Münchausen due to his tall-tales stories and adventures, by British physician Richard Asher. Münchausen by proxy is when a parent, usually a mother that seeks attention from their child or children illness. These children are forced to induce foreign substance to make their health poor. This article informs the reader about the different cases of accused mothers abusing their child for attention. At Sierra Vista Arizona in 2002 a mother named Kelley Savage suffers from Münchausen by proxy. The article states that her child's first incident started at one week old and she continued to poison her child, at the age of two years old the healthy born child had feeding tubes. A suspicious pediatric doctor from Fort Worth's children hospital placed the child in one of the rooms that was under surveillance. The mother was found tampering with the child's feeding tube, trapping air bubbles in the feeding tube line making the child sicker. (Weintraub, 2007) Other victims who are now adults came to interview for this article only giving their first name or a different alias, telling the stories of a Münchausen by proxy childhood. 29 year old Bree came forth and stated ever since she could remember as a child, she has been sick till the age of 18 years old. She remembers a taste of purple gum favor in her food. In result it was found she was inducing emetic ipecac, which was being prepared in her food. Emetic ipecac tends to cause children to become extremely sleepy or lethargic. This side effect of ipecac might confuse a diagnosing physician about the degree of certain poisons still left in the system after

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