Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a serious brain injury that happens when an adult violently shakes a baby or young child. Typically this type of child abuse happens when the adult is angry and is trying to get a baby to stop crying.
Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a serious brain injury that happens when an adult violently shakes a baby or young child. Typically this type of child abuse happens when the adult is angry and is trying to get a baby to stop crying. It can also happen when the adult is frustrated with a toddler or preschooler over something like toilet training or a tantrum.
When the child's head is shaken back and forth, his brain hits the skull, causing bruising, swelling, pressure, and bleeding in and around the brain. The impact often causes bleeding in the retina — the light-sensitive portion of the eye that transmits images to the brain.
A child with SBS may also have a damaged spinal cord or neck, as well as bone fractures. The amount of damage depends on how long and hard the child is shaken, but in just five to ten seconds a child can suffer permanent, severe damage or even death.
Could SBS happen accidentally while you're playing with your baby? Fortunately not. The normal ways that most parents interact with their infants don't cause SBS: Bouncing your baby on your leg, swinging him in his baby swing, jiggling your baby in your arms, or tossing him gently in the air is not going to cause shaken baby syndrome. SBS is also extremely unlikely to happen because of an accidental fall.
It takes deliberate, violent back-and-for