Mother starved 1-year-old son to death, to save money for video games

One of the main roles of a parent is to not only educate their child on how to behave, but to also care for them while they’re young. Child neglect can happen for all sorts of reasons, but it’s only with modern times that we see cases of gaming addiction leading to child neglect. Take one recent case of how one Japanese woman starved child to death due to her addiction.

Japanese woman starved child to death after saving money for computer games instead of milk powder

According to news sources, a Japanese mom, in trying to save money for video games, had unintentionally starved her one-year-old, who died.

The young 25-year-old apparently used up money to have more game points instead of the milk powder it was originally intended for.

It appears that she only fed her baby diluted milk once each day.

Her son gradually lost weight, becoming thinner over time. He died in October 2017 from malnutrition.

The police said that the boy weighed a meager 3.8kg at the time.

Recently, the mother attended court and confessed she was aware that her baby would die “one day.” However, she did not anticipate death to come so swiftly.

The mom said she only had a few friends, which led to her gaming addiction.

Signs of Video game addiction

We often think that only children are vulnerable to gaming and tech addictions — but most of the time we are no different. But exactly what are the signs of gaming addiction.

Using up lots of time for gaming isn’t a definite sign of an addiction. “Eighty percent of the world can play games safely,” says Keith Bakker, director of Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants. “The question is: Can you always control your gaming activity?”

In reality, there are red flags that hint at video game addiction. Here are some from the Center for On-Line Addiction:

• Playing a game longer than usual than the previous time
• Having thoughts about gaming while doing other activities
• Playing a game to get away from issues in reality, anxiety, or depression
• Lying to loved ones to hide your gaming addiction
• Being easily irritable if others try to reduce your gaming time

Furthermore, people addicted to video games usually become increasingly isolated, being inactive in their social networks and losing interest their hobbies.

“It’s about somebody who has completely withdrawn from other activities,” says Kimberly Young, the clinical director of the Center for On-Line Addiction. “One mother called me when her son dropped out of baseball. He used to love baseball, so that’s when she knew there was a problem.”

How can I treat my video game addiction?

Treating a gaming addiction is not much different to treating other addictions, except for one thing. Computers and technology have nowadays become incorporated into our routines and jobs, so compulsive gamers can’t just avoid a computer if they see one.

“It’s like a food addiction,” explains Young. “You have to learn to live with food.”

Gaming addicts can’t completely steer clear from computers. Thus, the solution is disciplining themselves so that they know how to use computers responsibly.

According to Bakker, that’s the same as no gaming. Even restricting game time just one hour a day isn’t going to help—Bakker compares it to “an alcoholic saying he’s only going to drink beer.”

According to Bakker, the hardest part in helping gaming addicts improve is that “it’s a little bit more difficult to show somebody they’re in trouble. Nobody’s ever been put in jail for being under the influence of [a game].”

The most important part, he says, is to show the video game addicts they have no control of their addiction. Then, the next step would be to make them learn excitement in reality over online fun.

References: the star, WebMD

Also Read: Baby dies from neglect as mom drinks and has sex for nine hours

Republished with permission from The Asian Parent Singapore