Could my grandmother have had Munchausen Proxy?

[Richard W]

Munchausen Proxy is a mental disorder where the mother tries and harms the kid for attention and drama. I think my grandmother had this. She had twins and they both died mysteriously ... both of them????? Then she had a son and he wanted to go to WWII and she didn't want him to go, so she may have gotten him sick. He was turning 17 but still a baby mama's boy, I think. Then before he went away to Navy school, he got really sick and they didn't know what was wrong. He died mysteriously too! Then my mother got a ready made illness Polio and was in an iron lung for two years, but my grandmother stood by her, but my grandmother had signs of this mental disorder. The survivors of this disorder become childlike with their own kids which happened to my mother and my younger sister, who is like the mother! Also, the child of the victims of Munchausen Proxy (the survivors) become hypocondriacs, and cry wolf types, as I was as a child and almost to adulthood until I understood!

[pennyroyaltea3]

I don't know because I'm not actually seeing the situation first-hand, though if what you say is accurate it does appear that it's entirely possible.

[A B]

A large number of people in that generation and the baby boomer gen. have this disorder. It is actually impossible to diagnose legally, someone with this. Both generations are renowned for having narrow minds, and will not improve an area of their life due to having to learn something, and this laziness has links to dementia. I still love them, and they are who they are, but gee, there is so many lessons I have learned from their mistakes.

[thelogicalferret]

First it is not just the mother that can have this disorder, fathers can have it too. Second people with this disorder usually kill slowly, and it is not their intention to kill, it is their intention to make their child sick as long as possible so they will continue to attain that attention. I highly doubt you grandmother has this problem, you mention a 17 year old son, however unless he was sick all his life it is unlikely that his mother killed him because of Munchhausen by proxy. Further more it is unlikely that someone would "give" their child polio, most parents with this problem stick to easier products like household chemicals, feeding feces or rotten food, the illness is harder to diagnose this way because the physician doesn't know the child was poisoned by common chemicals.At the time you grandmother had twins there was probably a higher mortality rate for infants than there is now.Lastly Munchhausen by proxy can be and has been diagnosed.