BHUBANESWAR: Jealous of her parents' undivided attention to her younger sibling, barely a month old, a five-year-old girl in Kendrapada district had been branding her with a fork for almost a month.
The infant's untold pain would have remained a mystery had the parents, following the advice of the doctor treating their child, not installed a CCTV camera in their home. To their utter horror, the CCTV footages showed their five-year-old daughter branding her baby sister with a hot fork almost every day when the mother would be away.
The matter came to light when the parents brought the injured baby to a paediatrician in Cuttack on Friday.
Initially, the parents were in the dark about the sudden appearance of random red spots on their child's body. Their child continued to suffer and would cry inconsolably. "When they had first come to me with their child, I had noticed that some red spots had darkened with time, while a few looked fresh. At first, I had thought it could be owing to sepsis or allergy. But despite being treated for more than a month, the child had developed new spots. Old ones kept getting healed, while new ones kept appearing," Vikram Samal, the paediatrician, said
He added, "When the parents brought the child to me again after some days, I was sure the red spots were burn injuries. I asked them if anyone was physically torturing the baby. They didn't have an answer. Then I advised the parents to get a CCTV camera installed in her room."
The CCTV footage showed that whenever the elder sister would find the baby alone, with the mother busy in household chores, she would walk up to the kitchen, pick up a fork, heat it on a gas stove and put it on the one-month-old's body, leaving her in pain. Though her loud cries would make the mother run to the room and attend to her, she had no clue about what was happening in her absence.
Experts said they often come across sibling rivalry among children and advise parents to take precautions. "Children feel they are getting unequal attention and care from parents when a sibling is born. They feel their relationship with their parents is threatened by the arrival of a new baby. They derive pleasure by causing harm to their siblings. Parents need to keep a strong vigil on the kids," A Swain, another paediatrician said.
Dr M K Rath, a child psychologist, said, "Sibling jealousy, if not addressed in time, may have an adverse impact on their conduct as they grow up. Parents should not make a child feel that he or she is inferior to the other kid. Since children do not understand the meaning of counselling, they can only be handled with equal love and affection from parents."
