What is your opinion on Munchhausen Syndrome?

[fleabones3]

I was watching a Cold Case episode where a woman supposedly hurt her kids for attention.

Personally, I think society needs to throw a "label" on anything and everything to try to explain things or make things easier. If there is a murderer, then he must be suffering from post traumatic to abusive homes. Why cant society just admit that some people are cruel for no other reason than it makes them feel better??

[Advertisement]

[gmyers]

I agree. What they do to their own kids is horrible. I saw a woman on tv who's baby was in the hospital put her hand over her babies nose and mouth and suffocate it till it almost passed out. Then she'd run in the hall and call the nurses saying her baby had passed out and wasn't breathing. That poor baby was kicking and struggling to breathe while she was doing that. And another show on tv told about a womans seven year old that had thirty surgeries because the mom would inject urine or feces into it and make it sick.
They should take the children from them and sterilize them so they can't have any more. The children are always sick with them but when they take them away no more sickness.

[dinosmom]

When my DS was born, he had complications and for the first month of his life he was in and out of the hospital. Our peds nurse came in one day and told me quietly that the hospital was "investigating" because my DS was in and out of the hospital. She assured me that nothing was my fault but she wanted to let me know what the hospital was doing. At the time that was the last thing on my mind and I didnt give it a second thought. Yrs later it dawned on me what went on. I was a little perturbed because there was no way I could have caused what was happening to my DS but then the more I thought about it, the more I was grateful that the hospital was actually doing an investigation to make sure I wasnt hurting my child or anyone else was hurting their child. It was standard procedure when a child was admitted numerous times.

[fleabones3]

Yes.. One of my son's was in the hospital a lot for the first 2 mos of his life. I wasnt doing anything to cause it. It just makes me sick to think of it. LIke Susan Smith killed hers cuz she was sexually abused. Oh bull. SHe wanted them out of the way to start a new life.
If society would quit sugar coating things and just told it like it is and actually punished people, this world might not be so bad

[gmyers]

I do think a lot of people use sexual and physical abuse as an excuse for what they do.

[cpbaby]

Munchausen's is a very calculated way to get attention and sympathy, looks like to me.

[Njean31]

i think they need to be sterilized, their children taken away, and never to be around other children.

[Vee030473]

I cant understand the mentality of people with Munchhausen by Proxy(parents that make their children sick). But those with the Munchhausen(the disorder where they hurt themselves) I guess it is because they didnt receive the right kind of attention while growing up and to them, harming themselves gets them the attention they seek.

[cpbaby]

i think they need to be sterilized, their children taken away, and never to be around other children.

That is Munchausen's By Proxy....where someone harms someone else(usually a child) to gain the sympathy and attention. Plain Munchausen's Syndrome is where someone harms themselves. One of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read was about a woman who had Munchausen's By Proxy.....she thrived on the attention and sympathy she got when her children were sick.....and eventually died.

[MsLynn]

i read the book "from the cradle to the Grave" its about a woman who i think was named Mary Beth Tining, and she had one child die of natural causes,and ended up killing like 9 others.. she got attention when she got pregnant and then of course the baby showers, and again when the baby was born, and yet again when the baby died. its a very "enlightening" book. TRUE STORY I BELIEVE.

[cpbaby]

i read the book "from the cradle to the Grave" its about a woman who i think was named Mary Beth Tining, and she had one child die of natural causes,and ended up killing like 9 others.. she got attention when she got pregnant and then of course the baby showers, and again when the baby was born, and yet again when the baby died. its a very "enlightening" book. TRUE STORY I BELIEVE.

Was it by Ann Rule? If it was, I think thats the same book I read. It sure sounds like the same one.