Report Says 90,000 U.S. Infants Maltreated a Year

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Report says 90,000 U.S. infants maltreated a year
By Will Dunham
Thu Apr 3, 5:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About one of every 43 U.S. infants is physically abused or neglected annually, and those babies are especially at risk in the first week of their lives, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its first report on maltreatment of babies up to age 1 that 91,278 of them were physically abused or neglected in 2006. Other new government figures showed that 499 babies up to age 1 were killed in maltreatment cases in 2006.

About a third of the maltreated infants -- 29,881 -- were abused or neglected before they were 1 week old, mostly during their first four days, the CDC said. Many of those cases may be linked to maternal drug use, the CDC said.

Physical abuse included beating, kicking, biting, burning and shaking, and neglect included abandonment, maternal drug use or failing to meet basic needs like housing, food, clothing and access to medical care, according to the report. The findings were particularly troubling because children who suffer such abuse tend to go on to have numerous health and other problems, officials said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080403/us_nm/infant_abuse_usa_dc

[PaganWitchFeminist]

1. Just awful...

When I read stories like these, I get so sick to my stomach. I've two children of my own and have been researching adopting another one or two in a few years. Just seems like I can't get prepared fast enough.

[yardwork]

4. Welcome to DU!

I'm a pagan socialist lesbian fishatarian.

:hi:

[Mojorabbit]

2. access to medical care

I wonder what that percentage was.

[yardwork]

3. More family values in the USA

The right wing screeches about family values but supports a structure that destroys families - no healthcare, no public transportation, parents away in a horrific war, environmental degradation, corrupted food supply, inhumane working conditions, job layoffs, expensive housing, no mental health care, and worst of all - a consumerist culture based on the pursuit of nothing but increasing profits, everything else be damned.

We're living in a post-human world.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. let's not forget

the systematic destruction of families of color.

[yardwork]

6. Yep.

And the state-sanctioned use of torture to terrorize people. And the state's use of psychological operations to terrorize people into going along with the fascist takeover and erasure of rights. All in the name of profit.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. The US has changed

much in the last 40 years of my life. It is very sad, especially when you look at what we could be. We used to be the guiding light of the world.

[H8fascistcons]

8. Well Said....

This is what happens when you deregulate capitalism, we are now in the final "cancer" stage. I'm not sure either Hillary or Obama are prepared to do what is necessary...



*Please America, never forget that the criminal Fascist republicans could not continue to commit crimes against us and the constitution without the help of the criminal Fascist enablers Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller, Steny Hoyer, Ted Kennedy. Please never forget until these criminal Democrats are voted out of office, they do not get to pick and choose which crimes against the constitution to ignore....

[Sabriel]

7. Look at the rise of stress factors for an explanation

Not enough time off from work to care for a new child, living paycheck to paycheck, choosing between food and putting gas in your tank, cuts in community support to new parents....

The list goes on. I won't bore anyone with a rundown on what governments do for new parents in other countries. (cough<Sweden>cough)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7202694.stm

"Take for example, parental leave.

Swedish parents get 480 days off after the birth of a child. Most of it is on 80% of normal pay, but many employers top that up to 90%.

Each parent must take 60 days, but how they divide the remaining 360 is up to them.

And the time off is valid until the child is eight years old."

[applegrove]

9. Awful. Oprah should get on that and make it a national issue.

[Cerridwen]

10. "neglect included...failing to meet basic needs like housing, food, clothing and

access to medical care"

<snip>

"Many of those cases may be linked to maternal drug use"

Interesting spin: it's all the fault of drugged out women but has nothing to do with a crumbling system.

edit to correct wording