Rhinebeck Child and Family Center, LLC- Did We Forget to Feed the Baby

Rhinebeck Child and Family Center, LLC Child Therapy Techniques - The Center for Practical Tools for Child and Adolescent Therapists Dr. David A. Crenshaw, Director	NEWS Upcoming Presentations (click)
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"We Forgot to Feed the Baby!”

By David A. Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP

In my role as a clinical psychologist, I have spent almost four decades working with abused and traumatized children and their families. In one electrifying moment in a therapy session with a young boy in a residential treatment center who had been exposed to extreme domestic violence and deprivation, he was preparing a pretend Thanksgiving feast and when he brought the food to the table, he "froze" his eyes on a baby doll in a high chair in the corner and he exclaimed, "Oh, my God! We forgot to feed the baby!" Metaphorically, he was telling me the story of his life experience. His family was overwhelmed with their own problems, poverty, alcohol and drug addition, violence, so no one had time or energy to "feed the baby." He had just returned from what he had anticipated would be a "Thanksgiving feast" with his family. Instead, he had spent the holiday weekend in a shelter for abused women and their children, because the mother's boyfriend had severely assaulted her the night before his visit home.

The shocking and appalling headlines of another child beaten to death send chills through our spines. Her step-father, the newspaper reports, has been charged with her death. Still another unconscious child is found living with siblings in a room cold as a result of a broken window. There was no food in the refrigerator. By the time the 4 year-old child reaches the hospital, he is declared dead. Who do we direct our outrage towards? Do we make scapegoats out of the Child Welfare department and their overloaded caseworkers or do we look inward at our own and outward at society's priorities? Have we as a society forgotten to "feed the baby?" As the most developed society in the world how can we allow children and families to live in unsafe, crowded, cold apartments with no food in the refrigerator? Children are voiceless. They have no vote. They have no lobby. But their voices can be heard if we listen carefully. Far too many are asking in a barely audible voice, "Have we forgotten to feed the baby?"