ANDREWS AFB, Md. –
For 2007, the Department of Defense has kicked off a family initiative to bring more focus to the dangers of Shaken Baby Syndrome. The syndrome has been given increased focus due to the stress involved with ongoing deployments and unresolved issues many parents bring back from overseas. The campaign is an effort to educate the estimated 25 to 50 percent of American military personnel who know nothing of SBS -- a completely preventable syndrome.
The facts about SBS are shocking, and should make both parents and non-parents take note. Statistics reflect that one baby in four who is shaken will die and, of the thousands who survive the trauma, sustain serious injury, including: head, neck, spine, and brain injury. These injuries can lead to permanent blindness, mental retardation, deafness, seizures, cerebral palsy, or worse. Victims are, on average, six months old, male, and often uncontrollable criers.
Not surprisingly, more than 80 percent of those who commit SBS are adult males, but more alarming is that most of these are the babies' parents. Said Brenda Smith, the New Parent Program Manager and Family Advocacy Nurse at Andrews Air Force Base Malcolm Grow Hospital, "Men do not tend to take advantage of learning about child safety and attending classes as do women."
Sometimes, parents who would not hit their child believe shaking their baby is less violent. However, due to a child's physical makeup of weak neck muscles and a heavy head, shaking a baby causes its brain to bounce inside the skull, which leads to internal bruising, swelling, and bleeding. Although injuries are not immediately evident, tell-tale signs of SBS are: irritability, bruises, lethargy (slowness), poor feeding, convulsions, and vomiting.
"Life will never be the same again for these babies," said Ms. Smith. "The damage inflicted in as little as five seconds of shaking can remain for the rest of their lives."
Knowledge about Shaken Baby Syndrome is the best cure, according to statistics supplied by the National Institute of Health and the Epilepsy Association of Central Florida.
Ms. Smith said parents should know there is never a reason to shake their baby, as well as how to calm their baby, and there is always help available.