Munchausen syndrome by proxy

Munchausen’s by proxy (MSBP or Fabricated Induced Illness) is a controversial mental health diagnosis, in which a person deliberately harms a child or dependent adult in order to create illness serious enough to need medical intervention.

Large numbers of children with ME/CFS have found their parents accused of "fabricating" their illness, sometimes resulting in child protection/safeguarding measures being taken to separate the ill child from parents or carers. In some cases children with ME/CFS have been removed from parents and spent considerable time in a psychiatric unit, without parental contact.