SICKENED

I have recently read this Auto Biography and found it horrifying.

Auto Biography's always interest me as it's real life and sometimes it is something I can relate to however this book opened my eyes to a form of child abuse I had never heard of Munchausen By Proxy.

Julie Gregory tells us the story of her childhood and how she did not have one due to her mother causing illness by working her into the ground and inventing symptoms for her daughter to which she would cry to the doctors about and so would be given medication which in effect made her worse meaning more trips to the doctor.

The Blurb on the back of this book is right as it is the worse form of child abuse:

• doctors think the mother is distressed and just want to help
• child believes the only way to be loved is to pretend to be ill (causing them to be ill)
• it goes unseen by most as there are no physical signs

After reading Julie's story I wanted to investigate further into MBP as I was most disturbed by what I had read and wanted to know if there were many cases like this and what caused parents to act this way towards their child as I cannot understand how you would want to hurt another human being that you have carried inside you for 9 months.

After reading into MBP I found 90% of the time the parent was abused as a child and they act this way as they get attention/care/love from everyone around them as their child is sick. They crave the attention they never had as a child.

One case I read about where a mother had been injecting salt water into her 4 month old son which caused many issues and he needed to be hospitalised and this is where she was found out.

A nurse caught the mother disconnecting the feeding tube and so the nurse reported this.

Police investigated the woman's home to find salt and syringes all over the house, the mother has been given a 15 year jail sentence which I don't think justifies the fact that this little boy will now never lead a normal life as he will now suffer one or more of the following:

• Cerebral Palsy
• Blindness
• Epilepsy
• Other conditions

Quotes from the book:

'the part I hated most was the shaving. I mean , if your'e a twelve year old girl, how much hair can you have on your chest? But they lather me up anyway and run a new plastic bic between my barley there breasts. They needed me smooth and hairless so the little white pads would stick to those points con-stellated around my heart and record my beats'

'"How do you act when your sick Julie? Show me?" I slouch the edge of the table, limbs dangling. I hang my tongue out and my bottom lip falls away from my teeth

"That's right. Now what do you think the doctor is going to say if he comes in here and sees you're sitting up and smiling? Do you think he's going to believe me when I say your sick? You got to show him how sick you are" '

'Books are my friends now, where it's okay to be silent, where your not a freak if you don't want to get drunk, peel out in a parking lot.... even if it is dark'

It's a really good book and worth a read.

An eye opener to what really goes on behind closed doors in this world of ours.