Shaken baby syndrome, or inflicted traumatic brain injury, is the direct result of violent shaking of a child with or without there being contact between the child’s head and a hard surface (Barr, Barr, Fujiwara, Conway, Catherine & Brant, 2009). Shaken baby syndrome is considered highly dangerous as it is not easily detected with its annual estimated rate of inflicted traumatic brain injury being 30 cases per 100 000 children aged 1 year or younger (Barr et al., 2009). This essay will be speaking more about shaken baby syndrome, the effects it has on infants and how it can be prevented. This essay will further discuss the effectiveness of intervention strategies that have been used for shaken baby syndrome, specifically speaking about these interventions, what they entail and then impact these interventions have made on the prevention of shaken baby syndrome.
According to Jayakumar, Ranjit and Gandhi (2004), shaken baby syndrome is a serious form of child abuse of which is often under-diagnosed due to there being very few or no obvious external indications of injury. Most parents and other care givers do not necessarily understand what
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Other symptoms also include drowsiness, seizures and apnoea. Some infants with non-specific signs of brain injury later display difficulties with learning and educational failure (Blumenthal, 2002). If an infant is held by the thorax and then shaken, it causes a repetitive acceleration deceleration trauma which leads to intracranial bleeding (Jayakumar et al., 2004). Many cases are fatal or lead to seizures and neurological disability including blindness. It has been seen that cerebral palsy, mental retardation or epilepsy may be present in about 60% of the children who are victims of shaken baby syndrome (Jayakumar et al.,