Shaking may Cause Serious Long-term Effects to Infants

– Shaking may Cause Serious Long-term Effects to Infants

A group of interns of the Teaching Maternity Unit of “The University College of Health Care of the UGR” has carried out a bibliographic review of the ‘shaken baby syndrome’.

According to them many of the diagnosed cases, which produce internal damage to the infant, have been caused by mistreatment or abuse of infants.

Crying is the only way a baby can express its feelings and needs. If the parents or caregivers cannot find the cause of the inconsolable crying of the infant, they might react sharply and shake the baby. The violent shake of the infants head causes brain damage and, as a result, the infant stops crying. For this reason, this behaviour may be repeated in similar situations. This is one of the serious consequences extracted from the bibliographic review carried out by a group of interns of the Teaching Maternity Unit of the University College of Health Care of the University of Granada (UGR) published by the Nursing Journal Rol.

Concepción Ruiz Rodríguez, lecturer of the Department of Nursing of the UGR and head of the research group, explains that the “shaken baby syndrome” is not well-known and may cause several injuries which, in most cases, have no outward physical signs. Although the seriousness of the brain damage depends on the frequency, intensity and duration of the shake, there are other minor injuries observed due to this syndrome, such as irritability, lethargy, convulsions, vomiting or lack of appetite, and others that are more serious such as eye injury and broken bones.
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