Fabricated or induced illness (FII) is also known as “Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy” and usually occurs when a parent or carer exaggerates or deliberately causes symptoms of illness in their child.
It is usually the mother who is involved and may try to persuade healthcare professionals that their child is ill when they are healthy (DCSF, 2008).
There are three main ways in which this might take place. In the case of fabricated illness, the parent or carer might exaggerate or lie about the child’s symptoms. If they also manipulate the test results to suggest that they really are ill then this is described as falsification. For example, by putting glucose in urine samples to indicate that the child has diabetes.
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