The Gypsy Rose Blanchard Story

EnoughWithTheIce · Apr 29, 2019

1 hour ago, OldDude said:
This is more common, with many variants, than we realize...unfortunately.

This is such a true statement. I have seen lots of straddling the fence cases in my school nurse career. And it seems to be on the increase. New parenting style or diagnosis?????????????

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · Apr 29, 2019

3 hours ago, k1p1ssk said:
More recently, we had a mother in our school insisting her child had all these psychiatric d/o's, and medicating him to high heaven. She went so far as to get her PCP to file on our school for not handling accusations of bullying. DCF found the accusations to be unfounded and she ended up taking him out of school and has been homeschooling him since the beginning of dec... I feel pretty confident that kid is a victim of MBP as well, but its so hard to file for emotional abuse.

That's the worst. When they get "homeschooled."

CamMc · Apr 29, 2019

I have been watching the new show on Hulu and find it so interesting, sad, but very interesting. I was first introduced to what MBP is by my mom who is a teacher, she had a student that they were fairly certain was impacted by this (at the time I was about 22 working as an aide at the same school as her, so I was familiar with the student). Then, a few years ago I was working as a behavior therapist at a school for children with special needs, we had a student in our class whose older brother was also at our school. Both had an autism DX, but both didn't quite seem to fit the diagnosis. The mom would frequently call them out sick and then they would return the next day without any sign of being ill (saying they had croup and then coming in with absolutely no cough), the mom also started accusing the classroom staff of negligence that the youngest was bitten by another student and came down with pneumonia as a result of the bite. Our class had 9 children, 4 of which had one on one's working directly with them and then there were two paras and the teacher for the remaining 5 students and he was the only one who had ever displayed any biting behaviors and was seen biting himself, he also frequently ended up essentially having a one to one because he would require the most assistance of the four who didn't have behavior therapists with them. The mom ended up removing both boys from the school and from what I heard from a mom who kept in touch with her, she has jumped from school to school. She also had a younger child who was expected to come to our school the next year had they not left and the mom was expecting a fourth child at the time. I felt so bad for the kids, everything we could was documented, but I don't know that anything was ever reported, it was one of those we really just have a small suspicion, but wanted to keep a close eye on the family and then they left.

CampyCamp, RN · Apr 30, 2019

I remember this story breaking and caught up on it again last week when a friend posted an article but I haven't see a documentary yet.

We were recently discussing a case at the hospital with a foster mother who regularly took in and adopted terminal, vented, persistent vegetative state children and wanted everything done for them and took them on make-a-wish trips and plastered them on social media. It's hard to say something ill about a person that everyone thinks is a saint for taking the toughest foster children and I'm glad to see medically fragile children in homes but I have a sneaking suspicion that she's doing it because she get a high from the attention and sympathy. (including the pictures and highly visible trips with kids who have no knowledge of where they are.) I feel she's caused as much pain to these children as Dee Blanchard caused to Gypsy although in a very different way.

kidzcare · Apr 30, 2019

These stories are so heartbreaking. Deep down, we all know that, statistically speaking, some of our students are being abused in some way, probably by someone they love. So awful to think about.

Golden_RN, MSN · Apr 30, 2019

The podcast 'Sword and Scale' did a great episode all about this story, with audio clips. I was captivated listening to it. This poor girl.

AdobeRN · May 1, 2019

15 hours ago, Golden_RN said:
The podcast 'Sword and Scale' did a great episode all about this story, with audio clips. I was captivated listening to it. This poor girl.

I'll have to listen to that one. The podcast "the Last Podcast on the Left" did a good one also with audio clips from the documentary "Mommy Dead and Dearest".

bluebonnetrn, BSN, RN · May 2, 2019

On 4/29/2019 at 12:08 PM, jnemartin said:
The Gypsy Rose story is pretty extreme, but in my school where the population is extremely affluent and lots of resources and time to focus on health issues, there are a lot of borderline cases... as in, parents seeking unnecessary medical eval and treatment for their children which ultimately effects the kid's self esteem, school attendance, participation in sports/extracurriculars, etc. It's such a shame.

YES! I have noticed this as well. I have wondered if there could be another term for this. It isn't exactly MBP but like many have said it's borderline.
What I have noticed is lots of perseverating on truly small things and minor details. I had a kid come in for me to check her bug bite because "mom was worried and because she's never seen anything like it before"
Ummm... it was literally an ordinary bug bite. Not a thing weird about it.
I chuckled and thought the kid was probably being silly and sent her back to class. Well sure enough, her mother called about 30 minutes later asking me to check the bug bite, stated the exact phrase"it's like nothing I've ever seen before", was ready to make an emergency doctor's appointment, was talking with a shaky voice and on the verge of tears. I explained as nicely as possible that it was an ordinary bug bite, displaying normal healing and was absolutely nothing to be concerned about. She then said the reason she was so concerned was because of the "red ring around it". Um, no. There was no red ring. Nothing. Just a little scab where it had been scratched. I don't think this lady was making it up. I believe she actually saw a red ring. I think it is some sort of perception disorder related to anxiety.
And that is what I we are seeing more and more. They run to a doctor's appointment for the slightest fever, one time episode of vomiting, etc. But I also see doctor's feeding it. I am sorry, but when you put a kid in a boot and on crutches for a broken pinky toe you are just feeding the alligator.
I had one case that was very severe and for a while I believed it was MBP. I then changed my mind and I now believe this is a loving mother who truly thinks she is doing the best by her child and I think she actually perceives all of these "problems" as being real even though some are not and some are just blown way out of proportion. I know she had multiple doctor's fire her but I don't know if anything was ever reported. She now has a younger child and has shifted her focus to that one. I don't want to give details in case this gets "seen" (I really wish we had some guarantee of privacy on here)
But what do we call this? It is definitely some sort of anxiety disorder.
But if we could just be more frank with people instead of coddling them to make them happy we might be able to nip it in the bud.
Oh, but I like to have fantasies like that!

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · May 2, 2019

@bluebonnetrn I really appreciate your perspective here. When RJ Junior was a baby I was that overconcerned mom. Mr. RJ is a nurse and he grew up without any sort of consistent health care so we met in the middle with "If it's been more than x number of days, we call the doctor." Lawn Mower parents, they call them now....mowing over any discomfort or injustice. It is hard to tease out what is medical psych and what is emotional psych, isn't it?

CampyCamp, RN · May 2, 2019

In general Munchhausen By Proxy is now called Fictitious Disorder by Proxy but you're right, there definitely seem to be some other psych disorders that are "by proxy" where the parents mean no harm and get much more pain and stress than benefit so they probably aren't doing it on purpose. Psychosomatic Disorder By Proxy? Hypochondria By Proxy?

I've been thinking about the Blanchards and it surprises me that Gypsy Rose is in prison. I think it worries and disappoints me. Do the documentaries cover how the decision was made to imprison rather than admit to intensive psych and get her OT rehab? Did she do treatment and now is finishing time? She's talked about wanting a family and is amendment that Dee taught her how not to be a parent and her step mom has taught her how to be better but how doe she get rid of years of psychological baggage and not being taught basic life skills?

kidzcare · May 2, 2019

1 hour ago, CampyCamp said:
I've been thinking about the Blanchards and it surprises me that Gypsy Rose is in prison. I think it worries and disappoints me. Do the documentaries cover how the decision was made to imprison rather than admit to intensive psych and get her OT rehab? Did she do treatment and now is finishing time? She's talked about wanting a family and is amendment that Dee taught her how not to be a parent and her step mom has taught her how to be better but how doe she get rid of years of psychological baggage and not being taught basic life skills?

I hope she has gotten psychological care in prison. I'm guessing she went to prison because it was not a crime of passion. It was planned well in advance and they knew what they had done was wrong.

I'm certain she has major psychological damage from being under her mother's care. It's unthinkable.

Fun fact: she recently got engaged. In prison. Interesting.

RatherBHiking, BSN, RN · May 2, 2019

I actually had a parent one time CRY because her little darling needed glasses. I was floored. I had to explain it's pretty common and not that big of deal before she would calm down. Weird!

I was also surprised Gypsy had to do time. She obviously has messed up ideas and how could she not be psychologically scarred from how she was raised. It was like she didn't even seem to realize it was wrong to plan to have her mom killed. Then she cried really hard when they told her that her mom was dead even though she knew she was but it was like she didn't realize the permanence of it or something. I'm basing that on the real live video feed from the police questioning. It was just all a little "off". I also saw where she was engaged which makes me wonder if she found someone else a little "off" or if they are taking advantage of her. Her life will probably never be normal.