A. IS A GOOD BOY: THE CRUCIAL SYNERGY AMONG CURE AND CARE IN A CASE OF DEVELOPMENTAL RECOVERY OF A NON-ORGANIC FAILURE TO THRIVE
MARTINA BUA
Child Abuse and Neglect Crisis Unit, Padua University Hospital, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128, Padua, Italy.
FRANCESCA MARIA BOTTARI *
Child Abuse and Neglect Crisis Unit, Padua University Hospital, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128, Padua, Italy.
ELISABETTA TONO
Child Abuse and Neglect Crisis Unit, Padua University Hospital, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128, Padua, Italy.
MARIELLA RUBIN
Department of Pediatrics, Padua University Hospital, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128, Padua, Italy.
MELISSA ROSA- RIZZOTTO
Child Abuse and Neglect Crisis Unit, Padua University Hospital, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128, Padua, Italy.
PAOLA FACCHIN
Child Abuse and Neglect Crisis Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Padua University Hospital, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128, Padua, Italy.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Non-organic failure to thrive is a common outcome in maltreated children, who often come to hospitals in a state of serious decompensation. In the field of child protection, foster care is often the most common solution, but unsuccessful multi-placed in foster care worsen the child’s clinical condition, which is already very critical. This paper reports the case of a 3-years old boy with serious impairments caused by early physical abuse, neglect, institutionalization, and unsuccessful multi-placed in foster care, who showed a developmental recovery after a prompt and prolonged hospitalization. A multidisciplinary and multi-focus intervention was adopted, in which the role of hospital holding as preliminary containment tool, and the medical-nursing staff’s mothering was crucial. Promoting emotional containment and developmental catch-up in abused children, hospitalization should become an eligible therapeutic choice in clinical practice with maltreated children.
Keywords: Child maltreatment, non-organic failure to thrive, multiple foster care, hospitalization, developmental catch-up, outcomes, child protection.