Mother pleads no contest to poisoning her son. (Article reprinted from MSNBC affiialite, KSBY  Read the MSNBC article.)

A shocking case of an unusual form of child abuse is settled in a San Luis Obispo courtroom. It involves a Nipomo mother who is accused of repeatedly poisoning her own son for attention. The mother is said to have an illness called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Today, the mother changed her plea from not guilty.

In court, a tearful Maria Diaz waived her right to a trial and pled no contest to charges of torture.

Diaz was taken into custody last year on child abuse charges. Prosecutors say the 23 year-old Nipomo woman poisoned her son.

SLO Deputy District Attorney Karen Gray says "(Diaz) administered acid in her son’s food repeatedly. Beginning when he was nine months old and continuing to his birthday when he turned three, resulting in approximately 12 hospitalizations."

When Diaz’ son Pepe Perez was three years old he was taken into protective custody and doctors at Cottage Hospital diagnosed Maria Diaz with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. It’s a form of child abuse where parents make their children sick to get attention from medical experts.

Prosecutors say Diaz wanted attention from someone else.

"This case is slightly different in that the mother wanted the attention of her estranged husband. When the boy was in the hospital, when the boy was ill, then his father would come around," adds Gray.

While Maria Diaz has given up the fight against torture charges, her four-year-old son is in for a lifetime of fighting.

The repeated poisonings have left permanent damage. Says Gray, "He has scaring from his mouth, his outside of his chin, all down through his esophagus to his upper bowel. And all of those areas have a higher risk of developing cancer later in life."

Child abuse experts say mothers like Diaz often kill their children because doctors never think to suspect a child’s parent.

Four-year-old Pepe Perez is currently in foster care. His mother, Maria Diaz, will be back in court in July for sentencing. Prosecutors say she faces a sentence of seven years to life.

This is the first time the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s office has prosecuted a Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy case. The condition was first diagnosed by an English doctor in 1977.

By Jean Elle