EBD Blog

Water is a good thing for humans to drink, but water in excess is deadly. There are two recent stories in which parents have forced children to consume excess liquid and the children have died. This is not appropriate method for treating child behavior problems.

National news sources have reported about the death of Casandra Killpack after her parents—at least one of them—forced her to consume excessive amounts of water as therapy for having sneaked sips of other children’s liquid. Justin Hill, covering the story for the Salt Lake Tribune (UT, US), provided this description of some of the testimony.

Cassandra Killpack had been made to ingest water “far in excess” of the body’s need at least five hours before EMTs arrived at her Springville home, a doctor who wrote an article on child abuse and water intoxication testified Wednesday.

The water killed Cassandra in 2002, said Allen Arieff, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco. By the time, medical personnel came to help her, “she was gone,” he said.

“The treatment had no effect on the outcome,” testified Arieff, who specializes in kidney diseases.

As it turns out, it wasn’t the first time Jennete Killpack, now on trial with her husband for killing Cassandra, gave her 4-year-old adopted daughter water as punishment.

During an interview with police, Killpack admitted she gave Cassandra about 30 ounces of water after she sneaked some water the week before her daughter started therapy at the now-defunct Cascade Center for Family Growth.

The second story comes from my neighborhood and has been covered by Sarah Barry of the Charlottesville (VA, US) Daily Progress. It is the story of a doctor whose child appeared to have been abused repeatedly. In addition to a fracture and burns, the child was forcibly overhydrated.

Dr. Iain Gainov, a former pediatrician at the University of Virginia, was convicted Friday of felony child abuse but acquitted of five other charges. He could face up to 10 years in prison.

Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that prosecutors had shown sufficient evidence that Gainov had intentionally harmed his infant daughter, Megan, on the morning of March 1, when she had to be taken to the hospital for water intoxication.

Although it is not clear whether Dr. Gainov was using water as therapy, Ms. Killpack apparently thought she was. It is clear that neither should not have forced so much water on their children. They surely needed better ways to address the problems they had with the children’s behavior.

Link to Mr. Hill’s story. Link to Mr. Hill’s paper’s coverage of the conviction of Ms. Killpack, Casandra’s mother. Link to an ABC News story apparently based on an interview with the Killpacks.

Link to Ms. Barry’s stories about the opening of Dr. Gainov’s trial and the guilty verdict.

The Council for Children with Behavior Disorders (CCBD) is seeking nominations for officers of the organization. CCBD is a large, active community of people concerned with the education of children and youths with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. It is a valuable group to which to contribute.

The deadline for nominees to submit information is October 30, 2005. Nominations and supporting materials should be mailed to: CCBD, PO Box 24246, Stanley, KS 66283, may be faxed to 913-239-0550 or may be emailed to Jamie@ccbd.net. Questions may be directed to: Sandra Keenan, Nominations and Elections Chair, skeenan@air.org.

Link for more information.

In a column written anonymously for the Ashville Citizen-Times (NC, US), the father of a 12-year old child with bipolar disorder provided a glimpse into the life of his family. It is an account that clearly captures the anguish of the situation.

How to convey what life is like with nerves constantly frayed? When your child’s moan causes every muscle in your body to tighten, because that moan might grow into a growl, and that growl into a rage that might last an hour or more?

How to convey what life is like when your child holds knives to his throat or tries to jump from your car, when he destroys things that are most precious to him, when he attacks you and his siblings, when he does everything in his power to provoke you and then sobs uncontrollably when the episode has passed?

The father also notes myriad other concerns (e.g., financial consequences) and discounts typical misunderstandings of emotional and behavioral disorders (e.g., they are caused by lack of discipline). It’s a little off the topic of this blog—not about education— but worth the time to read.

Link to the column. (Note that there paper’s editor explains the exception to her paper’s rules about publishing anonymous columns in an accompanying column and that there is accompanying editorial about failures in North Carolina’s system of mental health care.