http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-04-03-infant-neglect_N.htm?csp=34


Abuse, neglect seen in 90,000 infants

ATLANTA (AP) - About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or
abused, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.
Nearly a third of the victims were one week old or younger when the maltreatment
was reported, government researchers said Thursday. The study focused on
children younger than 1.
Most of these cases involved neglect, not physical abuse. In the case of
the newborns, experts said the data suggests drug abuse by the mother may have
been the cause for reports of neglect, but they couldn't be certain.

Maternal drug abuse is often discovered through blood tests while newborns
are still in the hospital, CDC researchers and others said.

"That is the story here," said Dr. Howard Dubowitz, a professor of
pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and
neglect during the study period Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006. About 30,000 of
those cases were newborns aged one week or younger.

The information came from a national database of cases verified by
protective services agencies in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto
Rico.

Other studies have looked at national child abuse and neglect cases, but
this is believed to be the first to focus on infants, said study co-author
Rebecca Leeb, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The results mirror what a study in Canada found, said Leeb, a CDC
epidemiologist.

"We certainly were distressed" by the study's results, said Ileana Arias,
director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

"It's a picture you don't want to imagine - that this number of infants is
being mistreated," Arias added.

Only about 13% of the newborn cases were counted as physical abuse,
meaning the large majority involved neglect. Federal officials define neglect as
a failure to meet a child's basic needs, including housing, clothing, feeding
and access to medical care.

The counted cases did not include new parents stumbling their way through
breast-feeding or making other rookie mistakes.

"Things like abandonment and newborn drug addiction would qualify as
neglect, not things like parents learning how to be parents," Leeb said.

Medical professionals identified about 65% of the maltreated newborns to
protective services staff. The others came from law enforcement, relatives,
friends, neighbors and from protective services staff.

The neglect cases include situations in which medical professionals
conclude that a child got sick or didn't correctly develop because parents
didn't get recommended medical care. Those cases were not necessarily
life-threatening, noted David Finkelhor, who directs the Crimes against Children
Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

Finkelhor said the cases might in part reflect families who don't have
adequate health insurance. The study's authors said they don't have information
to verify that theory.

Both Finkelhor and Dubowitz have worked with the same database the
researchers used. But Dubowitz pointed to data showing that most of the neglect
cases in newborns were reported in the first two days of life.

That is a time when results from blood tests of mother and child come back
and are often shared with protective services. Such tests would indicate whether
the mother was abusing drugs.

However, Dubowitz said data on potential explanations behind neglect cases
is skimpy, so it is difficult to draw conclusions.

But more prenatal care and drug treatment services would seem like a wise
way to address the problem, he added.

The study didn't include data on fatal abuse and neglect. But federal
officials said about 500 infants under age 1 died of abuse or neglect during the
study period.

The CDC collaborated on the study with the federal Administration for
Children and Families. The research was published in the CDC's Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.




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