Shaking a baby is never the right move

April is Shaken Baby Awareness Month. Based on a North Carolina research project published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in August of 2003, approximately 1,300 U.S. children experience severe or fatal head trauma from child abuse every ear. The same study revealed that approximately 30 per 100,000 children under age 1 suffered inflicted brain injuries.

Head trauma is the most frequent cause of permanent damage or death among abused infants and children and shaking accounts for a significant number of those cases. Babies' neck muscles are weak and their brains and connective tissues are fragile and underdeveloped. When a baby is shaken, the brain bounces within the skull, causing bruising, bleeding and swelling to the brain.

One out of four babies who are shaken vigorously dies as a result of this trauma. Other lifelong injuries can occur, including brain damage leading to mental retardation, speech and learning disabilities, spinal injury and paralysis, cerebral palsy, seizures, hearing loss, partial or total blindness, broken bones and dislocations.

You don't calm a crying baby by shaking. Inform anyone who cares for your baby - relatives, friends, baby sitter, child care providers, brothers and sisters, anyone with little experience in child care. Bouncing a baby on your knee for fun has also been known to cause brain and neck injury - similar to whiplash. Shaking a baby can be deadly. Remember that crying doesn't hurt a baby - shaking does.

For more information and tips on handling a crying baby, contact Prevent Child Abuse Illinois in Springfield

Arlene Sawicki

South Barrington