Welcome back. We’ve been discussing Munchausen by Proxy syndrome, and how it’s suddenly come back into the limelight courtesy of HBO’s hugely popular limited series Sharp Objects. If you’re just joining us now, we recommend you spend a minute getting caught up here. But if you haven’t watched the show, or read the book yet, watch out – there are serious spoilers ahead!

Based on the Gillian Flynn best seller of the same name, the story follows Camille Preaker, a woman struggling with self destructive habits as a result of a painful childhood. During the course of the story, she discovers that her mother killed her sister as a result of Munchausen by Proxy syndrome. It’s a tragic and heartbreaking story, but does it really happen in real life?

Sometimes it’s real. And sometimes it’s not.

Imagine your child suffering from symptoms that don’t make sense to you. Symptoms that can’t be matched to any childhood illness you’ve ever heard of. So you take them to a doctor, whose as confused as you. They refer you to a specialist, who conducts a number of tests, and finds nothing. So what’s happening to your child?

Suddenly, the medical staff who were going to fix everything, who were going to be your child’s salvation, are turning to you for answers. Did you do this? Did you give your child something to make them sick? Are you in such desperate need of attention, that you would risk your child’s life? Are you really such a monster? As if the undiagnosed illness of your child isn’t terrible enough, now suddenly you’re to blame.

False allegations can destroy a family

Unfortunately, accusations against innocent parents are far more common than actual instances of Munchausen by proxy. After all, everyone wants a quick and easy solution to a problem. If there is no immediately available diagnosis for a child’s strange list of symptoms, then it must be the parents! Except, it very often isn’t.

In fact, more often than not, it’s a disease so rare, so little documented that most doctors don’t even know it exists. But that is not an easy answer. And it requires a specialist to admit their ignorance. If you know anything about doctors, you know they don’t like to admit that they made a mistake.

Have you been accused of hurting a child for attention?

We’ve spent decades defending falsely accused parents. Parents, specifically moms, who’ve been accused of abusing their children for attention. So if you or a loved one have been falsely accused of harming a child, contact us immediately at 866 766 5245. We can help you through this heartbreaking time and fight for your family and your children. Don’t ignore this and hope it’ll go away, get the help you need today from our skilled and experienced child abuse defense attorneys!