Physical Child Abuse

Physical child abuse is an adult’s physical aggression that is directed at a child causing injury even if it wasn’t the adults intended purpose. Acts of aggression can include things like striking a child with a fist, foot, hand, or object; shaking, throwing, or pushing; burning a child with a hot object such as cigarette or curling iron; cutting off or pulling a child’s hair. These types of acts of physical child abuse account for 15 to 20 percent of the documented child abuse cases every year.

Physically abusive caregivers or parents will use the excuse that their actions are not abuse but a form of necessary discipline, a way to make their child/children learn to behave. However, there is a large difference between giving a child a slight tap on their backside and twisting a child’s arm until it breaks. Parents who are physically abusive have issues with control, anger, or are too immature or not willing to see that the level of their aggression is not appropriate.

Physical child abuse also happens to those yet to be born. Since there are multiple chemicals that easily pass from a pregnant woman’s system to the fetus, a mother’s use of alcohol or drugs during her pregnancy can cause severe physical and neurological damage to her unborn child. A mother who consumes alcohol during pregnancy can have a child born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Drugs and alcohol can also be passed on to the baby through the mother’s breast milk. In many jurisdictions a woman who does drugs and alcohol when knowing she is pregnant can be charged with child abuse if her baby is born with problems due to her substance abuse.

Another form of physical child abuse is shaken baby syndrome, where the person caring for the child gets frustrated and shakes the baby in a rough manner to make the baby stop crying. Since the baby’s neck muscles cannot support the baby’s head and the brain bouncing inside the skull, the damages the baby suffers can be severe neurological problems or even death. Regardless if the person who is shaking the baby intends to hurt him or not, it is a still considered physical child abuse.

Indicators of physical child abuse are: unusual bruising, burns, bite marks, lacerations, fractures that have occurred in unusual places, discoloration of the skin, a high instance of accidents or frequent injuries, and injuries that cause swelling to the face and other extremities.

Some of the behavior indicators a child might show if he/she has been physically abused. They are: apprehensive when other children cry, seem frightened by their own parents, have little respect for others, complain of pain when moving or coming into contact with others, often late or absent from school, avoid physical contact with other people, and reports the abuse by parents.

If you know or suspect someone is physically abusing their child please call the police or social services to help stop the abuse.