this morning we are continuing the
conversation about child abuse last hour
we shared with you
Rosie's story her aunt says that the
two-year-old was abused so severely head
trauma caused the little girl to have a
stroke look at her so innocent there at
the hospital
she was paralyzed on the left side of
her body for months a family friend has
been arrested now we're looking this
morning at triggers we understand
raising kids it's hard you can get angry
frustrated as it turns out local
pediatricians who work for the team that
investigates children who are abused
have made some startling observations
about societal triggers for example they
found that when gas prices increased by
more than a dollar there is a spike in
the number of child abuse cases here in
Florida the same alarming trend was
discovered when a parent or caregiver
does not receive the tax refund that
they had hoped for and the same
discovered when report cards were sent
home on Friday a jump on Saturdays now
we know that raising kids is difficult
and remember in fact the recession back
in 2008 they found that abuse cases
doubled in our state so there is a clear
connection between abuse and financial
hardship and when it comes to parenting
and behavior there are two major
triggers to child abuse
dr. Randall Alexander is a member of the
Child Protection Team CPT here in Duval
County he tells me the number one reason
babies are abused is because of crying
and that parents don't realize a crying
baby baby is perfectly normal
most of crime is just a baby that is
from evolutionary terms it's trying to
pry mom's recipe
her milk supply
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and yet most parents don't know that and
they see this as the child has a problem
the child doesn't have a problem they're
doing what they're supposed to do the
problem with is with us we have walls
around us and it gets annoying sometimes
all right so to keep from losing your
temper because you are annoyed he says
put yourself yourself in timeout it's
okay to put the baby in their crib on
their back without anything else in the
crib so that they're safe and then walk
away for five minutes give yourself a
break so that you can calm down of
course another option pass the baby off
to someone else who's not frustrated
another trigger is when children are
being potty trained dr. Alexander says
that parents need to have realistic
expectations of what children are
capable of doing what they're capable of
doing and understanding for a child to
go for example to be put it's just very
very difficult for a child particularly
based on their age to know what is the
right and wrong behavior when it comes
to potty training for a child to go in
all by themselves pull their pants down
and go to the bathroom pull their pants
back up you know that's more like a
three-year-old people blame the child
they're angry they're near hot water and
that's where we see burns yeah believe
it or not people will punish their child
because they missed the toilet is an
example during potty training and they
will actually burn their skin because
it's just right there it's just
heartbreaking to hear and to see
certainly but those are the kinds of
child abuse cases they sit they see very
frequently now you should know that 54
countries have now outlawed spanking the
American Academy of Pediatrics says that
spanking is not effective and there are
no positive benefits to correcting bad
behavior regardless of where you stand
on the idea of spanking children child
abuse investigators explain when
spanking becomes a possible criminal act
in medicine there's a bright line if you
leave even the slightest injury from
hitting them you've crossed from
spanking to beating so spanking with the
bruise it's not exist in medicine that
bruise means that you now have been
beating
there are a lot of people that spank and
never leave any injury and again I've
encouraged people not to do that but
when you leave an injury now we're going
to call that physical abuse which means
that you could be charged with child
abuse keep that in mind and you could
lose your child now coming up at 8:15
the doctors at Wilson Children's
Hospital have become so concerned about
the number of cases of child abuse that
it's seen it's now launching a new
program called take ten how it can teach
you or someone you know like new parents
or expectant parents how to cope with a
baby or a toddler you know who really
honestly takes you to the edge we get it
it's hard we're gonna show you what you
can do so you don't make a terrible
mistake