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What you can do to help:
Show your support of Prevent Child Abuse America!
Inform Yourself
Order our Staying Cool When Baby Cries publication. This pocket guide provides words of support plus practical advice on how to comfort a crying baby, how to cope with a colicky baby who can't be comforted, and how to stay in control when things seems to be getting out of control.
Advocate!
Take action on Federal SBS Prevention Legislation. Contact your Senator or Representative today! | |
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Shaken Baby Syndrome can be prevented by learning safe ways to calm a crying baby or child.
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Questions and answers about colic:
What is colic?
It's when a baby cries for long periods of time for no obvious reason. Colic usually starts at 2-4 weeks of age and goes away by 4 months of age.
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Hello Friends of Prevention,
Prevent Child Abuse America is committed to policies and services that promote early child development. We also support efforts to provide parents with information that promotes good parenting choices. We know parenting a child can be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling activities in a person’s life. We also know though, that taking care of a baby is more than a full-time job. Babies need care all day and night, every day and every night. Caring for a baby can mean long hours and little sleep. Under these types of demands, it is not uncommon for stress to develop. All parents have these feelings at some point. But it is important to find safe ways to deal with this stress and feelings.
Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) usually occurs when a parent or other caregiver shakes a baby because of anger and frustration generated by a baby’s crying or irritability. SBS is one of the most preventable forms of child abuse, as many caregivers are unaware of the dangers of shaking a baby. Prevent Child Abuse America believes that parents and caregivers have options and we work to inform parents and caregivers about the dangers of shaken baby syndrome to:
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Build parenting skills through positive knowledge about infant and child development; -
Inform parents around stress and anger management including specific techniques for managing stress; and, -
Inform parents about shaken baby syndrome and how to protect their infant(s)
This important topic has prompted us to redesign the format of this month's newsletter to provide more information on shaken baby syndrome prevention for our diverse base of newsletter subscribers. Our normal features on "Tips for Parents," 'Did You Know," and "Help Our Mission," that includes a highlight of one of our publications, are still here. But Prevent Child Abuse America also wants you to know that we and our Chapters and Healthy Families America networks are looking to shift public will towards child abuse and neglect prevention and change the systems that support parents. With that in mind there are three new areas this month as well:
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"Engaging Communities" which highlights the amazing work being completed by our state Chapters across the country on shaken baby syndrome prevention; -
"For Advocates" which highlights the work that Prevent Child Abuse America and our Chapters are doing legislatively with the Federal Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Act; and, -
"For Parents" which focuses on the options that parents have, and the importance of getting more optimal amounts of sleep and good nutrition. We also stress the importance of parents identifying people in their lives who they can call upon to help them during difficult times and encourage them to use their family, friends and neighborhood supports.
I hope you enjoy the new format and find it useful and easy to find the information that you need on shaken baby syndrome and how to prevent it. Please feel free to share your opinions of the new format. You can email me at info@preventchildabuse.org. Remember, shaken baby syndrome is preventable! Each of us has a role to prevent the abuse and neglect of our nation's children.
James M. Hmurovich
President and CEO |
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on the topic of shaken baby syndrome prevention
While working at the Buffalo Children's Hospital in New York, Dr. Mark Dias developed and piloted a program which he showed decreased the incidence of shaken baby syndrome cases by 48% over 8 years. Under his program, parents of all newborns in the targeted hospital received educational information about infant crying and the dangers of violent infant shaking. The educational materials included a parent handout published by the America Academy of Pediatrics, "Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome" and the opportunity to view an 11 minute video, "Portrait of Promise." Parents then voluntarily signed a commitment statement acknowledging they received the information. His program was subsequently adopted by the New York legislature which enacted a law in 2001 mandating for SBS information to be given to all parents of newborns before leaving the hospital. Dr. Dias is currently in the Division of Neurosurgery at Penn State, and Pennsylvania in 2002 also enacted a law that the Dias program be provided to all parents of newborns, including offering parents to sign a commitment statement. Florida, Texas and Utah have subsequently enacted similar laws, and legislation is pending in Maryland and Missouri. These programs demonstrate the feasibility of eventually implementing a (legislated) nationwide SBS prevention program. Dr. Dias program has served as the model for many of our own state Chapters' SBS prevention initiatives. In this section we will highlight the work of some of our Chapters around SBS prevention.
Prevent Child Abuse Alabama
The goal of the University of Alabama's Shaken Baby Prevention Program is to strengthen families by providing an interactive prevention program designed to inform parents of all newborns about the dangers of shaking their babies and healthy ways to respond to infant crying, before they are released from the hospital. The program was piloted at two Jefferson County birthing hospitals in 2004 (UAB Hospital and Cooper Green Hospital) and uses curriculum adopted from Dr. Dias' New York program and Dr. Harvey Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block method. New parents receive brief education sessions from highly trained bilingual parent coaches, watch the video "Portrait of Promise" or "Have a Plan-Teen", and sign a commitment statement indicating that they have received the information about the dangers of shaking. This program targets all newborn infants and their parents regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. In addition, the program has a community education and outreach component, the focus of which is to inform nurses, social workers, childcare providers, and other working with infants and young children about SBS and responding to infant crying. By working in close collaboration with PCA Alabama, the program has reached over 9,000 families and 1,000 healthcare professionals since the program was implemented.
Prevent Child Abuse Arizona
Never Shake A Baby, Arizona (NSBAz), is a project of Prevent Child Abuse Arizona. NSBAz is a primary prevention program, designed to reduce the incidence of shaken baby syndrome (SBS) by informing all parents at the time of newborn discharge from the hospital about crying as a normal developmental activity for infants, ways to handle stress associated with caring for a crying baby, and the dangers of shaking their baby. The NSBAz program is offered in both English and Spanish and includes a take home brochure of tips for soothing a crying infant and a frustrated parent, a Commitment Form that parents sign promising to share the NSBAz message with their baby's caregivers (social contract), and a video shown by hospital nurses to explain shaken baby syndrome and how to prevent it. NSBAz is based on the Dr. Dias model and has been provided to over 15,000 Arizona parents upon newborn discharge since 2003. With more than 100,000 births per year, Arizona has an ambitious goal to inform 90% of all parents of newborns. For more information, visit the website: http://www.nsbaz.org/.
Prevent Child Abuse Massachusetts
Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention: An In-Hospital Training Program for Maternity Nurses, Nurse Educators and the Parents they Serve, developed by Jetta Bernier, MA, Director Massachusetts SBS Prevention Center and Mary Wyszynski, MS, RNC, NNP.
Public health regulations and legislation in a growing number of states now require birthing hospitals to include information about shaken baby syndrome as part of well child care education for new parents. Now your hospital, public agency, or child abuse prevention group can institute a quality, life-saving SBS prevention program without the high costs of developing, testing, and implementing your own. A 2 DVD set is intended to support implementation of an In-Hospital Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Program. It includes a one-hour training curriculum for maternity nurses and nurse educators; and a Parent Training Protocol to inform parents about newborns in their care. Educating parents about infant crying, infant soothing, and SBS prevention has been found to reduce infant deaths and disabilities from this tragic yet preventable form of child abuse. This presentation includes over 80 referenced slides, in both narrated and non-narrated formats, and reproducible documents to support program implementation. For more information, visit masskids.org.
To learn more about what a Chapter in your area is doing regarding SBS prevention, visit our Chapters page on our website, and click on your state. |
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What is advocacy?
Advocacy is as basic as speaking on behalf of oneself or others to get something done. For example, as child advocates we seek to ensure that the children in our community have a voice and that their needs are met. This can mean speaking on behalf of children and families to your local community officials, your state-level elected officials, or your federal policy-makers.
Why should you be an advocate?
The most obvious reason to be a child and family advocate is that you care. You care about the children in our country and want them to be safe, healthy, and happy. It follows that you want to help ensure that local, state, and federal policy-makers adopt, implement, and maintain important policies and programs that support children and families. In order to ensure that these policies and programs are maintained, it is critical to have a sustained vocal and noticeable presence at all levels of policy-making. You can be part of that presence; and therefore, you can be part of the effort to protect our nation's children and families. Get more information on becoming an advocate by visiting our advocacy section.
Advocacy and Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention
Take Action on Federal SBS Prevention Legislation
Earlier this year, federal legislation was introduced with the goal of helping prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome. Now you can let your members of Congress know about this important legislation through Prevent Child Abuse America's Legislative Action Center.
The Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Act, introduced by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY-18), would provide $10 million to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop and implement a public information and education campaign aimed at preventing Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS).
Ask Your Senators and Representative to Cosponsor the SBS Prevention Act
The campaign created by the SBS Prevention Act would:
- Disseminate effective prevention practices and techniques to parents and caregivers through maternity hospitals, child care providers, organizations providing prenatal and postnatal care, and other organizations providing support to parents;
- Carry out trainings to ensure that those involved in the care of young children, home visitors, primary care providers, child care providers, and health care providers are aware of ways to prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome, and the need to secure immediate medical attention in cases of head trauma.
- Work to ensure that the parents and caregivers of children are connected to effective supports through the coordination of existing programs and networks and through the establishment of new programs when necessary.
PCA Chapters Advocacy and Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention
Prevent Child Abuse California
It Takes a Village to Write a Bill -- Preventing Shaken Baby Syndrome in California
In Western New York state, a team of doctors led by Mark Dias developed a procedure that cut the number of shaken baby syndrome cases in half. The process was adopted statewide and began to spread to many other parts of the country, including several Prevent Child Abuse America state chapters. In Sacramento, the distraught parents of a child shaken to death walked the halls of the state capitol, urging lawmakers to do something. Sacramento County hospitals were beginning to implement the Dias program and see results. Prevent Child Abuse California took the opportunity to initiate state legislation to help prevent shaken baby syndrome. + Read More
Prevent Child Abuse Ohio
Stivers, Family of Victim to Push for Legislation to Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome
As part of National Shaken Baby Awareness Week, State Senator Steve Stivers (R-Columbus) held a press conference on Monday, April 16, 2007 at the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Columbus Children's Hospital to announce the introduction of legislation that would establish the Shaken Baby Syndrome Education Program in Ohio.
Local law enforcement, child abuse advocacy groups, and child abuse prevention specialists were present and offered perspectives on the importance and impact of the legislation. A family was also present that shared their personal testimony of the devastating effects that resulted from their infant daughter being shaken.
Prevent Child Abuse Massachusetts
First State to appropriate funds for SBS Prevention
Massachusetts in June 2007 became the first state to appropriate funds to implement its SBS Prevention law. The law, the most comprehensive in the country, was approved in November but without an appropriation. In late June, the State Budget was released including the appropriation of $350,000 to implement a comprehensive SBS prevention initiative across the state. The funds will go to the Dept. of Public Health to support In-Hospital SBS Prevention Programs for parents of newborns, as well as education of other parents and professionals in the community, support for affected families, injury surveillance and evaluation.
To learn more about what a Chapter in your area is doing regarding SBS prevention legislation, visit our Chapters page on our website, and click on your state.
Preventing SBS starts with you! Feeling overwhelmed and unsure are normal emotions for all new parents. To normalize these feelings, parents need to plan ahead for how they will manage these feelings when they occur so that their child will grow up in a safe and nurturing environment. This section focuses on ways to reduce a parent's stress level during peek crying times.
Learn ways to keep yourself calm.
Try to relax.
Take slow, deep breaths. Remind yourself that raising a child is a hard job. Try counting slowly to 10-or 100.
Take a break.
If you feel like you are losing control, step away. Place your child on his or her back in a safe crib or playpen. (Your child will be safe -- it's OK if he or she keeps crying.) Relax in another room for a few minutes.
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