Description

Shaken Baby Syndrome is when a caregiver shakes a baby violently, usually out of frustration. The baby can suffer from paralysis, blindness, brain damage and even death.

Transcript

When parents get frustrated, babies are inconsolably crying and with their frustration they pick the baby up thinking that shaking them is going to quiet them. But what they do not realize is that shaking them can kill them or cause them long term disability, paralysis, blindness, brain damage. You'll see the baby’s limp, lifeless, not responding, they’re not eating but once a parent picks up a baby and shakes them vigorously back and forth, they are basically separating the brain away from the head and it causes bleeding. It causes separation and it causes retinal damage, you know hemorrhages. So you can imagine if you're injuring the brain and that neurological center, babies, they’re going to end up like that. They’re going to present like that. And they say one in four children of shaken baby syndrome, they die. And the rest usually end up long term care just from a couple of minutes of picking that baby up and shaking them. Two to four seconds is all it takes if you shake them very hard and just throw them down. You know rock them, give them a pacifier, give them a bath, you know push them around the block in a stroller, things that you could do to calm the baby and calm yourself before picking them up and shaking them. And with the crying, you have to realize what normal crying is. Babies are going to cry but that is their only form of communication to tell us you know “I'm possibly hungry, I'm wet, I'm sleepy, please help me”. So with shaken baby syndrome, they seem more cases less than the age of one. And that’s just because babies can't talk and that crying is just the way that they can talk. You know they can call somebody for help. You know to take a break, you know take a deep breath. Make sure they put the baby—if the baby’s need are met. Put the baby in a safe place. Put them in a crib and just take a few minutes to walk away, catch their breath and then come back and check on the baby. You know anytime tat you become frustrated, don’t pick up the baby and shake them. Just take a moment to catch your breath and walk away and then come back because again, babies don’t die from crying. They die from shaking.