DefinitionMunchausen syndrome by proxy is a form of child abuse in which a parent induces real or apparent symptoms of a disease in a child.Causes, incidence, and risk factorsThis syndrome almost always involves a mother abusing her child by seeking unneeded medical attention for the child. It is rare and poorly understood. The cause is unknown.The mother may fake symptoms of illness in her child by adding blood to the child's urine or stool, withholding food, falsifying fevers, secretly giving the child drugs to make the child throw up or have diarrhea, or using other tricks, such as infecting intravenous (given through a vein) lines to make the child appear or become ill.These children are often hospitalized with groups of symptoms that don't quite fit any known disease. Frequently, the