Child neglect is the purposeful abuse of leaving or abandoning a child. This in term is neglect. A parent or guardian will leave the child alone for hours and sometime days at a time with no warning, possibly little food, and no way to help a child. This is one of the worst forms of abuse for a child to experience because it gives them a lot of mental issues at a young age. Often times as they get older it is hard to break their mental state. Most children who are fortunate to get out of their family situation go to therapy to try to reverse their mental state.
Signs of Neglect
Children who experience neglect often have the following signs. - Malnutrition (A child who is very skinny or asks for food leftovers often has experience neglect) - Poor hygiene (Not bathed, hair is not brushed etc.) - Being constantly tired -Very low self esteem -Frequent absents being late to school or other functions -Physical or medical problems (fear, anxiety) -Frequent illness
Why it happens
It is often wondered why a parent or guardian can neglect a child or leave them behind. Often times, a parent does it because they simply do not care about their child, which is hard to believe. Parents who are young may not care about their child and neglect them because they are still children too. They can barely take care of themselves let alone a child. Neglect goes one of two ways. Either the parent intentionally neglects their children or do not realize what they are doing. Either way, it is incredibly wrong to leave a child who cannot fend for themselves all alone.
what can happen if a child is NEGLECTED?
A child who is neglected can experience the symptoms above, but in some cases the absolute worst can happen. Sometimes the child will run away or even be abducted. If a child of neglect goes missing sometimes a parent will not even report that they are missing because they don't want to face the consequences of child neglect from the law. An example of child neglect is the case of Casey Anthony. Casey Anthony's child Caylee went missing and Casey did not tell anyone until 31 days after her disappearance. In this time period she spent her time partying but claims she was looking for Caylee in the process. Caylee was later found dead and Casey was charged with child neglect but not her murder which is very controversial. The story is very complex so that is a quick over view. If you want to do more research on this case there is a lot of information on it. This is an awful example of child neglect and I hate that it happened to Caylee.