"fx" wrote in message
...
Guilty until proven innocent: Parents accused of child abuse by DCFS fight
to clear their names

snipped

I had my own experiences with Illinois DFS about sixteen years ago when
someone made a false report that I was not feeding my newborn child.
The investigator came to my home and I allowed her to enter and search, as
well as talk to my kids.
During her investigation she found that my child 'looked thin', but that
there were dirty bottles in the sink that were obviously recently used,
formula, and no signs of abuse or neglect.
Regardless, the investigator insisted that I take my child to the local
trauma center to be examined. I was told that if I did not do so the
investigator would take custody of the child immediately and do so.

I arrived at the trauma center and explained to the nurse why I was there.
I also explained that I had complained in the hospital shortly after the
child's birth about what I felt was excessive spit up.
I said that I had been told that it was nothing, likely 'meconium' in her
stomach.
When a week passed I had called the hospital (the only place I could take
her unless it was an emergency as our insurance dictated) 50 miles away
where she was born and asked for an appointment, again, with the complaint
of excessive spit up. I was again given the 'meconium' story. This time I
was told that it would clear up within a few days.
Again, a week later, I called and requested an appointment, again explaining
the spit up and pointing out that my child would be due for a one month
check up soon anyway. They gave me an appointment for weeks later.
In the mean time, I explained to the trauma center staff that a home health
nurse had been visiting my home every week and weighing my child and that I
had complained several times to the nurse (still even remember her name)
about the spit up. I told the staff that it seemed to me that my child spit
up a good part of what she ate, but that she was certainly gaining size for
all I could see as her clothing was becoming smaller and I had had to
already move her from newborn sizes to 3 months. I told them that another
of my children was allergic to regular formula, and that I had thought this
may be the case with my daughter so I got permission from the doctor to put
her on soy. When that didn't seem to help I began breast feeding again, as
I had stopped in the hospital thinking that it might be causing her trouble
because of the meds I was taking for thyroid and asthma.

The physician came into the room and examined my daughter and said that she
weighed less than birth weight, and that he could see no sigs of abuse or
neglect to her. In fact, he commented specifically that her skin was plump
and colorful, her eyes and moth were moist which indicated to him that she
had, indeed, been fed regularly, and he appeared to be impressed that she
did not have a bald spot on her head...indicative of a child being laid for
long periods of time. He said that those spots were common in all babies,
but that the most hair loss occurred in children who were neglected, and my
daughter had no hair loss what so ever.

The doctor also told me that he was called by the DFS worker and told to
make a neglect report before I even arrived. He said that he told her he
would do so only after examining the child and finding signs of abuse or
neglect. He said that when he contacted her back he would not be giving her
the report that she wanted because he saw no signs of abuse or neglect in my
child. He did say, however, that she needed to be admitted to the hospital
to get her weight back up and find the cause of her excessive spit up, as
this would be the root cause of her failure to thrive.

My daughter was admitted to a hospital relatively close to our home, and
there the nurses and attending were asked to make a neglect report. After
one day the cause of my daughter's FTT was found...she had gastric reflux.
She was placed on a medication called Reglan and was put on a high calorie
diet and began gaining weight rapidly. Because it was obvious to staff at
this hospital that the gastric reflux was the cause of the FTT they also
refused to make a neglect report.

When the worker found out that they were also refusing she had my child
moved to the hospital 50 miles away.

There she requested, again, that staff make a neglect report. They complied
as an 'ass covering' matter.

Because there was no evidence to back up this report, as the medical records
showed by all accounts, even those of hospital that made the neglect report,
that there was no verifiable abuse or neglect, the workers supervisor
refused to take my child into protective custody. She cited that the courts
would not take kindly to a child being removed on medical conditions beyond
my control, and because I could verify that the child had received medical
care between birth and the time of hospitalization, as well as that I had
complained many times both shortly after birth and the following weeks about
the spitting up, I had acted appropriately and was not guilty of neglect.

This worker was irate that she could not remove my child from my home, and
she wasted a lot of hot air letting me know how she felt about it. She did
manage to open a service case, and for weeks I listened to her rant in
regard to my child...at one point telling my husband and I that she wanted
to adopt our daughter.

Eventually I became weary of the service plan. Not that I minded most of
it...there were 'between a rock and a hard place' incidents that occurred.
For instance: I lived on the lake, and DFS had given me a 'home maker'
worker. One day, while outside at the pier with my kids teaching my son how
to fish, the worker showed up for her appointment with me. The neighbor's
child was in the lake swimming and the worker advised me that she would be
making a neglect report against me as the 'responsible adult' if I did not
direct the neighbor's child to get out of the water because there was no one
supervising him. I told the worker that his mother was right inside their
house only about 20 feet away, and that if it was an issue she should go
knock on the door and talk to her. She said no, that I was the adult
present and it was my responsibility. I gathered up my children and started
back into my house and said 'No, now YOU are the responsible adult, make a
report on yourself'.

At another visit the worker verbally attacked me when I took crayons away
from my five year old who was writing on the wall with them. She said 'How
dare you stifle his creativity like that???' I was living in a rental
house, and could not afford to pay for the repainting from the damage my son
could do with the crayons and stated that he had paper, he could write on
that, not the wall. She was very angry with me when she left that day.

There were many incidents such as these...in one the worker told me that I
MUST take my five year old son in the shower with me so that he would not be
unsupervised for even a second. One day she witnessed my husband kissing me
goodbye when he left the house and had the nerve to tell me that she could
report me for exhibiting sexual behaviors in front of the children.

When I had my fill I lef the state...I had planned to after recovering from
the birth of my daughter anyway, but had never told DFS that this had been
part of my plan. When I called the worker, after moving, and told her that
I had moved she hunted me down and sent a worker to investigate me in the
state I had moved to. When the investigating worker arrived she said that
she had talked to the Illinois worker personally, that she had learned that
reports had been made after the initial 'not feeding baby' report, and that
they were petty but numerous and all made by the same caseworker who handled
the case. She said that the worker demanded that she open a case here, and
that she be allowed to manage that case from Illinois. The worker here said
that they aren't real tolerant of having someone try to dictate to them as
this Illnois worker had, and that she would perform her own investigation
and if she saw fit she would open a case, if not, then she wouldn't.

After seeing my kids, checking my daughter's medical records, etc, she
declined the opportunity.

It was my first case experience with DFS, and I learned from that that
experience that it apparently isn't always about abuse and neglect.
Sometimes it's about obsession.