topic 12 DQ 1-2
Please respond to the following post, with your opinion add citations and references if used it.
According to the CDC child abuse is defined as “ any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child”(Falkner, 2018). Child abuse can happen to any child under the age of 18. I have chosen to focus on toddlers since I have a toddler of my own. Abuse has different forms such as sexual, neglect, Physical, emotional, and medical abuse. In most cases the abuser is someone the child trusts and is close with the child like a
caregiver. The most common physical abuse reported for toddlers is shaken baby syndrome (CDC, 2018).
In this age group since some children are starting to become vocal, but no vocal enough to express their health concerns most of the verbal information will come from the parents. Some physical signs to look for would be odd bruising, burns such as cigarette burns, scratches, fractures, dislocations, poor hygiene, bites, defense injuries, lacerations, oral or dental injuries, facial injury without explanation, and difficulty walking or sitting. Emotional signs may be seen as excessive crying, fear, anxiety, clinging, depression, and withdrawn. Other important things to look for are is the toddler hitting the developmental milestones? Also looking at speech disorders, hyperactivity, regressive behavior, eating issues, failure to thrive diagnosis, increase in physical aggression towards others, and withdrawn to touch shows fear of the exam(Stanford medicine 2018).
Cultural differences that can be seen as abuse could be a simple language barrier that may make stories sound inconsistent. Parenting styles are influenced by culture and
the way a house hold will run is influenced by a person’s culture. Some examples are not taking a new born out for 40days after birth vs taking them out right away (PA family alliance,2018). Feeding a child with a spoon until 2 years old vs encouraging them to eat by themselves at 8 months old (PA family alliance, 2018). Leaning about
culture is important to determine was is truly abuse and what is not. Educating parents on different topics may change their views on certain parenting they have been doing and make them see that there are other ways.
In my state the nurse is required to report all possible abuse to the appropriate authorities. In this case child protective services as well as law enforcement. You would also report to the appropriate command chain in your work place.
References
Stanford medical, 2018. Child abuse retrieved from http://childabuse.
Mayo clinic, 2018. Child abuse symptoms and causes.
Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.
Centers for disease and control, 2018. Violence prevention
child abuse. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/
PA family support alliance, 2018. Discipline, Parenting
Styles and Abuse. Retrieved from https://www.pa-fsa.org/
Solution Preview
Child Abuse
Child abuse refers to actions or series of acts of commission or omission by a caregiver or a parent resulting in potential harm to a child (Centre for Disease and Control, 2018). Child abuse happens to children below the age of eighteen years however my research will narrow down to toddlers. Abuse can take different forms such as neglect, physical abuse emotional abuse and medical abuse. Usually, in most cases of child abuse, the abuser is usually someone who the child trust and is close to a child, for instance, a caregiver.
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