Neglect, abuse seen in 1 in 50 US infants; many victims are newborns, government study shows

ATLANTA — About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or abused, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.

Nearly a third of the victims were one week old or younger when the maltreatment was reported, government researchers said Thursday. The study focused on children younger than 1.

Most of these cases involved neglect, not physical abuse. In the case of the newborns, experts said the data suggests drug abuse by the mother may have been the cause for reports of neglect, but they couldn't be certain.

Maternal drug abuse is often discovered through blood tests while newborns are still in the hospital, CDC researchers and others said.

"That is the story here," said Dr. Howard Dubowitz, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and neglect during the study period Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006. About 30,000 of those cases were newborns aged one week or younger.

The information came from a national database of cases verified by protective services agencies in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Other studies have looked at national child abuse and neglect cases, but this is believed to be the first to focus on infants, said study co-author Rebecca Leeb, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The results mirror what a study in Canada found, said Leeb, a CDC epidemiologist.

"We certainly were distressed" by the study's results, said Ileana Arias, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

"It's a picture you don't want to imagine — that this number of infants is being mistreated," Arias added.

Only about 13 percent of the newborn cases were counted as physical abuse, meaning the large majority involved neglect. Federal officials define neglect as a failure to meet a child's basic needs, including housing, clothing, feeding and access to medical care.

The counted cases did not include new parents stumbling their way through breast-feeding or making other rookie mistakes.

"Things like abandonment and newborn drug addiction would qualify as neglect, not things like parents learning how to be parents," Leeb said.