Love is not Enough… The Need for Adapted Parenting

Abstract

Parental maltreatment due to inadequacy is a form of inappropriate parenting that leads to emotional, educational, and/or neglect-related deficiencies with severe consequences for a child’s physical and psychological development, though it is not necessarily intentional abuse. This constitutes a violation of the fundamental rights established in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We present the case of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy who was brought to the emergency department by the police. He was severely malnourished, which resulted in nutritional rickets and developmental delay. He had been fed almost exclusively breast milk. His parents had a profoundly distorted perception of his needs. This case is discussed from paediatric, child psychiatric, and legal perspectives