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Demonstration Warns Of Shaken Baby Syndrome

Carl Orth/SUNCOAST

Rebecca Bennett of Healthy Families uses a doll with LED lights to shows the brain damage associated with Shaken Baby syndrome.

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: October 14, 2008

Updated:

NEW PORT RICHEY - No parent or caregiver is immune from feeling some frustration from the incessant wailing of an infant.

Every mother in the room at a recent Healthy Families Pasco-Hernando workshop nodded in agreement.

An overwhelmed parent occasionally might fall prey to the pressure and shake the baby to try to make the infant stop crying.

A recent shaken baby demonstration was meant to shake people up about the hazards of crippling or even killing the young victim, Rebecca Bennett said as the program manager of Healthy Families, which is part of Pasco Kids First.

"The baby stops crying, but he may never be able to smile again," Bennett said about Shaken Baby Syndrome.

The ability to speak could vanish if the baby is shaken some more. Death becomes a grim possibility if violent shaking - more than three shakes per second - occurs.

"They're lying," Siobhan Giunta commented about any parent who claims not to get frustrated caring for an infant.

Giunta is one of the "resource moms" on the Healthy Families staff. Support systems are critical for parents, Giunta emphasized. Prevention works, Bennett stressed about educating people about the problem.

A grant paid for "Colin," a doll with LED lights showing through a clear plastic skull to indicate the damage from shaking. A baby's brain is still developing and its neck muscles are weak, Bennett explained.

In addition, an infant's skull bones do not fully fuse until around the age of 2. This provides space for the child's brain to grow and expand but leaves the brain vulnerable to trauma.

Five other dolls use a much simpler technique to demonstrate the devastating effects of shaking hazards. Each doll was given a name in memory of a beloved child or in honor of a special needs child.

A jar filled with a fresh, whole egg and blood-red food coloring is placed inside a hole cut inside the doll's head. After the doll is shaken, the jar is removed to show the scrambled egg with the red coloring, representing damage to a baby's brain.

The egg represents the brain and the jar functions as the skull, Bennett explained. Shaking causes the brain to hit the skull, bruise the brain and tear blood vessels, as well as tissue damage.

Since newborns do not come with an instruction manual, Healthy Families wants to reach out with advice for parents and caregivers on how to cope, Bennett explained.

Coping strategies might include arranging to call someone when nerves are frayed, Helen Campolettano suggested as a West Pasco team leader with Healthy Families.

Take a shower to drown out some of the noise of a wailing baby, Campolettano added, or run a vacuum cleaner. Perhaps a good friend can come over to give the parent a 30-minute break.

Distracting youngsters often helped Amanda Harding, another volunteer.

"They really like animal noises," Harding said. She learned many tricks for distracting screaming children as a cashier.

On one crowded flight, an infant was screeching for more than an hour, Campolettano recalled. One child expert tried swaddling the infant, who then slept through the rest of the flight.

Healthy Families provides home visitation services for expectant parents and families of newborns that strengthen families, promote positive parent-child relationships and optimize the health and development of children, Bennett noted.

Besides crying, other factors have led to Shaken Baby Syndrome, Bennett reports. Frustration with toilet training, a baby's choosy appetite or an infant cranky because of sickness have been cited in past cases.

The problem cuts across all income lines.

"Significant others" and babysitters are most often involved in Shaken Baby Syndrome cases.

More statistics hint at the extent of the problem, Bennett said.

•Shaken Baby Syndrome accounts for more than half of nonaccidental injuries in children.

•Between 1.400 and 10,000 cases of Shaken Baby Syndrome occur each year in the United States.

•A baby's brain is 25 percent of an infant's weight. The brain is only 10 percent of the weight of an adult.

•One-fourth of all shaken babies die from their injuries. The rest can suffer severe brain damage.

•There may not be visible signs of injury. The injuries may not become apparent until the child enters school and shows cognitive and behavioral problems.

•Shaken Baby Syndrome is the most common cause of death in abused children.

The first signs of severe shaking might include no response to stimulation, lethargy, convulsions, inability to make sounds, inability to track movement visually, difficulty breathing, blue-ish or dusky skin tone, unconsciousness, vomiting, rolling eyes and more.

For more information about Healthy Families or to schedule a demonstration, contact Bennett by telephone at 727-967-7509 or via e-mail.

More information about Pasco Kids First and Healthy Families is available at the Pasco Kids First Web site.

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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