Child abuse rockets during lockdown with 10 babies as young as 17 days old with head injuries at one hospital in a month

CHILD abuse has rocketed during lockdown pointing to a “silent pandemic”, a report warns.

One hospital treated ten babies as young as 17 days old for head injuries from suspected abuse during the first month of lockdown.

A study found London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital saw nearly 15 times the number of cases of children abused at home compared with the same period in the previous three years.

Six boys and four girls were admitted with extensive bruising, swollen scalps, breathing issues, loss of consciousness and seizures.

Scans revealed brain bleeds, tissue bruising and skull fractures as well as bone fractures elsewhere.

The babies’ families all lived in areas of social and economic deprivation and faced financial difficulties, the hospital found.

Experts compared the number of new cases of head injury caused by abuse with the same period from 2017 to 2019 when there were 0.67 cases per month.

But they warn the new figures likely underestimate the true number of cases as people avoid hospitals due to the pandemic.

They wrote in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood: “This sobering figure is likely under-represented due to public avoidance of hospitals at this time.

“Notably, two parents in our cohort cited fears of contracting Sars-CoV-2 as a reason for delayed presentation.”

The authors of the journal letter urged medical professionals to be vigilant of “a more silent pandemic”.

They concluded: “In the background of the intensely public Sars-CoV-2 pandemic, a more silent pandemic is occurring of which the medical community must remain astutely aware.”

Dr Alison Steele, officer for child protection at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “This is an extremely concerning report.

“It is important to find out if the huge rise in suspected non-accidental head injury reported at this specialist hospital is being seen by other hospitals across the country.”

She added: “Many of these children will have been brought into hospital because there were obvious signs that the child was very unwell, but we are also extremely worried about children who are not being seen because their physical injuries or other forms of abuse or neglect are more easily hidden.

“There is a very real danger that, under lockdown, children are falling through the safety net because of reduced access to support services and fewer opportunities for people outside the family to sound the alarm.”

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