system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental illness and a form of child abuse. The caretaker of a child, most often a mother, either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is sick.

For the second part - My job, in general, is working with children. In my field, I generally take the cases of abuse involving children. Though MSP is "rare", we see it very frequently 😬
gpt
And the reason they want to make everyone believe the child is sick so that they can be the angelic, suffering, martyr, who gives up everything for their sweet, perpetually-ill baby.

It also keeps the kid in question infantalized and utterly reliant on their abuser.