The term Munchausen syndrome by Proxy was originally coined by Meadow in (1977), to describe a situation in which a caregiver "creates factitious symptoms or signs in order to mislead the physician into believing the child is ill" (Blumenthal, 106). Meadow (2002) further defines Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy,

The children had incurred numerous needles and painful hospital admissions, investigations, and procedures because of a false story and factitious signs...the falsification was not by the patient themselves but by another person "acting on their behalf" which is a proxy (502).

Under the law, Munchausen's by proxy is considered a form of child maltreatment, as it "entails having inflicted harm upon a child by a caretaker and thus meets the criteria for child maltreatment established by the child abuse and neglect laws" (Perry & Joy, 151). An editorial in The Journal of Child Abuse & Neglect 27 (2003), reports that this form of maltreatment, "almost always manifests as...