A shocking national study has found that 1 in 50 U.S. infants have been the victims of abuse and neglect. In 30,000 of the 91,000 the infants were aged just one week or younger. MSNBC reports the news in this article.
The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and neglect in the period Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006.
The information came from a national data base of cases verified by protective services agencies in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Other studies have looked at national child abuse and neglect cases, but this is believed to be the first to focus on infants, said Leeb, a CDC epidemiologist.
The 91,000 infants were age 1 year or younger. About 30,000 of those cases were infants aged one week or younger. About 68 percent of those cases were attributed to neglect.
The article says federal officials define neglect as "a failure to meet a child's basic needs including housing, clothing, feeding and access to medical care." So the study did not include mistakes made by new parents as they are trying to learn the process of raising and taking care of a newborn.
