I think my mother-in-law is unstable and may have munchausen syndrome by proxy.?!


Question: My mother in law has guardianship of my 14 year old step son. Since he was a little kid, 4 or 5, she has been running him to the Dr. with supposed intestinal problems and other maladies of choice. Every week it has been something new. This week it's strep, even though the hospital ruled that out. She insists that the professionals are wrong. She keeps a "poop calender" on this kids bedroom wall to keep track of his bowel movements. As it is, my step son has so many emotional problems that he is deemed a danger to smaller children. He has been in therapy for 10 years. Of course, she thinks the therapists are over reacting to his disturbances. This is the one affliction she wont accept. For the life of me I can't figure this woman out. My husband and I are in the process of filing for custody of him so we can get this kid the mental help he desperately needs. What is this womans problem? Why can she accept a physical illness and not a mental illness?


Answers: People with MSBP aka MBP are pretty well aware of what they are doing.

Here's the telltale signs:
-Persistently reporting an illness in a dependent.
-Symtoms of the illness are only "evident" when she is arround.
-Symtoms are not noted by healthcare professionals but are taken seriously because she says that they are there.
-She gives permission for him to be treated for illnesses that he does not have.
-She attempts to develop close professional relationships with the child's health care professionals and seeks their praise on her knowlege of medical issues.
-Symtoms, episodes, outbreaks and attacks are only present when she is around.
-She spends a great deal of time reminding him that he is sick or convincing him that he does not feel well.
-Finding that she has poisoned him or done something to him to create symtoms or keep him ill.

If she is actually doing this, she may have MSBP. According to the DSM-IV, MSBP is an attention seeking behavior disorder. She desperately seeks the approval of people she respects (in this case, medical professionals) and does what she can to be around them and become an unqualified expert. She may not be willing to reckognize his mental illness if she does not want to waste time with mental health experts.

He's 14, can he tell you she's hurting him or making this up? Can you request his medical records in order to find instances of continued "mother reports patient is..." in his records instead of the doctor noting that he's actually seeing it? If you honestly think that she is victimizing him, nothing should stop you from calling the Department of Child Services in your area and having him removed from her home.





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