Awareness and Prevention of Shaken Baby Syndrome

Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a type of inflicted traumatic brain injury that happens when a baby is violently shaken. It occurs from as little as 5 seconds of shaking in children younger than 2 years old. The characteristic injuries of shaken baby syndrome are subdural hemorrhages, retinal hemorrhages, damage to the spinal cord and neck, and fractures of the ribs and bones. The majority of infants who survive severe shaking will have some form of neurological or mental disability, such as cerebral palsy or mental retardation, which may not be fully apparent before 6 years of age. In India, literature search on SBS reveals only few case reports and it is difficult to know the exact number of SBS cases per year because many cases are not reported or diagnosed. CDC Report (2013) suggests that there are 150 cases of unreported shaken baby for every known case that is reported. Hence the present study was aimed to educate mothers on prevention of shaken baby syndromes.

An evaluative approach with one group pretest and posttest quasi experimental design was adapted to collect data from 50 mothers selected using simple random sampling technique. A knowledge assessment questionnaire related to responses and strategies in handling crying baby was administered before and after the planned teaching and the collected data was subjected to analysis. Results: The findings revealed a significant gain (p.0.05) in knowledge scores of mothers regarding prevention of shaken baby syndromes.