NeverShakeABaby.org
Title
The Kiwanis Club of Ottawa - Never shake a baby!
Description
Shaken Baby Syndrome (or SBS) is the most commonly used name for specific injuries inflicted on a child. Many professionals also refer to these injuries as Shaken-Impact Syndrome.
SBS is a serious neurological injury – damage to a child’s brain – which is usually accompanied by bleeding behind the eyes and sometimes by other injuries. The damage to the brain is the result of a child’s head being whiplashed back and forth by a violent shaking, and sometimes by the head also being forcefully struck against something. Because a baby’s head is large and heavy relative to its body, and its neck still weak, whiplashing creates powerful forces inside the head. Violent shaking squashes the brain against the skull causing bleeding from torn blood vessels, damage of tissues, and life-threatening swelling of the brain.
The degree of injury to the brain depends primarily on the forcefulness of the shaking and the child’s size. If the initial injuries to the brain are severe, the child will very quickly develop alarming symptoms such as a seizure, stopping breathing and losing consciousness. Even with prompt medical care, about one in five victims will die. Most who survive severe brain injury will have permanent disabilities such as paralysis, blindness, profound developmental delay, and seizures. Some will live in a vegetative state. If the initial injuries to the brain are less severe, children are still likely to have permanent consequences such as movement and coordination problems, intellectual impairment, learning problems, and seizures. Experience to date suggests that all children who survive a severe shaking injury to their brain will requires special care for their lifetime. Even those less severely injured will need special services as they grow into adulthood.
Contact
- Kiwanis Club of Ottawa
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- Ottawa ON
- CA K1P5A6
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- +1.6132331900
