Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy: Taken as gospel, applied with zeal.

It's far worse than I could have imagined:

"An all-party group of MPs and peers is next month to meet Beverley Hughes, the minister for children, to discuss concerns that the hunt for potentially abusive parents might be out of control.

...

Despite the government’s official view that MSBP, also known as fabricated or induced illness, occurs in only about one person in a million, up to 12,000 children a year are being taken into care for MSBP- related reasons, according to the report.

...

While in Buckinghamshire there were only 540 initial assessments, in Kent the number was 12,510. Even allowing for differences in their populations, parents in Kent were 10 times more likely to be investigated over child protection issues. The report argues this discrepancy may be explained by some areas disregarding the MSBP hypothesis, “whereas in others it is taken as gospel and applied with zeal”."

From an article in The Times. Read it all and see why health child care professionals don't have time to deal with cases of mothers giving their children crack cocaine at the school gates. They are too busy going after parents who care for the wellbeing of their children.

A chance for professionals to help with the review of guidelines as concerns MSBP.

(with much thanks to anonymous)