Munchausen by proxy: Persecuted parents or protected children? Parents who claim they were wrongly branded child abusers have exhausted their life savings fighting to get their kids back and clear the names. Now they want a Seattle pediatrician to be held accountable. In each case, Dr. Kenneth Feldman concluded that the mother suffered from a rare mental disorder called Munchausen syndrome by proxy. And he remains convinced that children in those families are still at risk.