Nursery World - Great Ormond Street reports dramatic rise in suspected domestic child abuse during lockdown

Ten babies presented with abusive head trauma at the specialist children’s hospital in the first month of lockdown, pointing to a ‘silent pandemic’ of suspected domestic child abuse amid the pandemic, a report published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood has found.

Great Ormond Street children's hospital

London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital saw nearly 15 times the number of cases of apparent child abuse among young children in one month compared with the same period in the previous three years.

The babies, six boys and four girls, ranging from 17 days old to 13 months, were admitted with extensive bruising, swollen scalps, breathing issues, loss of consciousness and seizures.

Scans revealed brain bleeds, tissue bruising and skull fractures as well as bone fractures elsewhere.

This figure compares with an average of 0.67 cases a month for the same period in 2017, 2018, and 2019, representing an increase of 1493 per cent in 2020, say the authors.

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