Low Birth Weight and the Battered Child Syndrome

Abstract

Fifty-one cases of battered child syndrome seen over a period of nine years at the Montreal Children's Hospital were reviewed to explore the possibility that low birth weight predisposes to this condition. Of these 51 infants, 12 (23.5%) were low birth weight infants; the expected low birth weight rate based on the Quebec perinatal figures is 7% to 8%. Associated with these instances of battering of former low birth weight infants was a high degree of isolation and separation of infant from the parents in the newborn period (mean hospital stay, 41.4 days) and a strong history of deprivation in the maternal history and in the child prior to battering. Suggestions are made for early detection and intervention.The battered child syndrome is well known to readers of the pe¬ diatrie literature. Much has been written recently about the character¬ istics of both the abusing parents' and the abused child.2 4 It has been suggested that abnormality in the child predisposes to battering.2 Be¬ cause of the rapid growth in North American of centers devoted to the care of very small, extremely ill, pre¬ mature infants, and particularly be¬ cause these centers have the ability to increase the survival of hitherto unsalvagable infants, we examined the records of our hospital to deter¬ mine if low birth weight was associ¬ ated with an increased risk of bat¬ tering.

Creating Paths: Living With a Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infant

“…Parents' statements during this study support earlier findings about interaction between parents and their VLBW infant (Easterbrooks, Harmon, & Macey, 1987;Klein & stern, 1971). Many voiced concerns about how difficult it was to establish a reciprocal relationship with their infant.…”

Child Abuse: Early Warning in the Maternity Hospital

“…In this study we see once again the association between an increased incidence of child abuse and neonatal illness and separation (Elmer and Gregg 1967, Klein and Stern 1971, Holman and Kanwar 1975, Lynch 1975, National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children 1975 The mothers of abused or neglected children tended to be younger at delivery, but were no more likely to be primiparous than other social work referrals. These findings support previous studies (Smith et af.…”

Early identification of infants at risk for institutional care

“…In the present study of children admitted to institutional care the dysfunction of alcoholic, drug-addicted or mentally deficient mothers was obvious already in the maternity ward in two-thirds of the cases. Apart from the previously reported risk factors (Klein & Stern 1971, Lynch 1975, Hunter et al 1978 two additional ones appear to be of importance in the evaluation of a mother's capability for parenting, i.e. previous children in foster care and the maternal behaviour noted in the maternity ward.…”