Love is not Enough… The Need for Adapted Parenting

Abstract

Parental maltreatment due to inadequacy, a form of inappropriate parenting, results in emotional, educational, and neglect-related deficiencies, severely impacting a child's physical and psychological development, though not necessarily intentional. This violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We present a case of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy brought to the emergency department by police, severely malnourished, with nutritional rickets and developmental delay, fed almost exclusively breast milk. His parents had a distorted perception of his needs. This case is discussed from paediatric, child psychiatric, and legal perspectives.