A Gold Coast mother who poisoned her young daughter with chemotherapy drugs to get attention has been jailed for six years.

The 23-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty last October to grievous bodily harm by giving her daughter the drugs that she bought over the internet.

The court heard the girl was three-and-a-half when the poisoning started.

The woman admitted last October that she gave her daughter the cancer drugs over a 10-month period.

She also wrote about her child's "fight for life" on a Facebook page, which garnered widespread support and even attracted a small amount of donations for medical treatment.

The girl did not have cancer, and was hospitalised with life-threatening illnesses as a result of taking the drugs and spent long periods in hospital.

The court heard the woman also previously diagnosed herself as suffering from bowel cancer.

The prosecution says the breach of trust the mother committed was incomprehensible and was done to gain attention.

Prosecutor Glen Cash said the mother fed the drugs to her daughter to attract attention to herself.

Mr Cash said the drugs put the child at an "unquantifiable" risk of infertility and increased her risk of developing certain cancers by 1-2 per cent.

"Otherwise her outlook is good," he told the court.

Daughter now a 'healthy, happy little girl'

Barrister Catherine Morgan, who was representing the mother, said the girl was now being cared for by her maternal grandmother.

"She confirms [the girl] is indeed a healthy, happy little girl who started prep, who misses her mother," she said.

Ms Morgan told the court it was a sad and disturbing case.

She said her client had been suffering from an extremely rare mental disorder known as factitious disorder by proxy, where a person deliberately produces, feigns, or exaggerates symptoms in someone in their care.

The woman had also faked symptoms to have her own healthy appendix removed, the court was told.

However, a treating psychiatrist did not diagnose the woman with a mental illness.

The woman has been in custody for the past year and will be eligible for parole from April next year.

ABC/AAP