A tragic picture

Monday, April 7, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

The federal government has released its first estimate of the number of infants who have been abused before their first birthdays.

And that figure is horrifying: More than 91,000 infants were mistreated in 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its report on nonfatal abuse of babies. Although the report focused on infants who survived, federal officials told The Washington Post last week that another 499 infants died in 2006 as a result of abuse.

Ileana Arias, a CDC official, told the Post that the report paints a picture “you don’t even want to imagine,” and that researchers “find it incredibly distressing and unacceptable that children nowadays are being subjected to these kinds of behaviors.”

Over a third of the more than 91,000 infants mistreated had suffered abuses in their first week of life, and 84 percent were abused in their first month.

Thirteen percent of the cases involved the outright intentional injury of a child. But an overwhelming majority of the cases — 68 percent — were the result of neglect. This means that the adults charged with taking care of these tiny, helpless children failed to adequately house, clothe or feed them or failed to provide needed medical care, Arias told the Post.

Since this is the first time the CDC has tracked the abuse of our nation’s infants, it is unknown whether the figures represent increases over past years.

Nevertheless, they are deeply disturbing.

This is, as Arias said, “a serious public health problem.” Public health officials should work quickly to find ways to educate parents about proper infant care and help them access the services needed to provide it.

In a country with technologically advanced medicine, clean food and water supplies and a better-than-average standard of living, there is no excuse for tens of thousands of our children suffering from neglect.