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Northeast
Center for Special Care is pleased to feature:
National Center on Shaken
Baby Syndrome
www.dontshake.org
The Children of Shaken
Baby Syndrome
http://www.children-of-sbs.com/SBShome.html
Shaken Baby Prevention
http://www.sbsprevention.com
Awareness of child abuse has become has become more prevalent
over the past twenty years based in part of stronger
laws and punishment as well as an increased media
coverage. Scan the daily headlines on Yahoo!
News or Google News and you will find stories related
to the abuse of children daily. A far cry from
the days when something like this was not discussed or
even a part of daily news coverage.
One form of abuse that until the past few years had not received
much coverage by news organizations nor was even understood by people generally
(including the medical community) is now coming to the forefront.
Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a severe form of
physical abuse that in a matter of a single moment can
cause lifelong permanent disabilities and even
death. Sometimes it is done suddenly, out of
frustration or anger over an infant’s crying or it
can be part of pattern of abuse, It could be inflicted
by an
acquaintance, a sibling, a babysitter; and, it’s
often a parent. Even mildly shaking a baby can cause
severe injury. SBS can be insidious in that
while there are often no obvious visible signs of
trauma, SBS may be caused from vigorously shaking an
infant by the shoulders, arms, or legs.
Most commonly SBS causes brain injury and because a
baby is violently shaken, the "whiplash"
effect can cause bleeding within the brain or within
the eyes; it can damage the neck or spine. SBS can
also cause developmental delays, paralysis, severe
motor dysfunction, spasticity, blindness, seizures,
and it can cause death. It is thought that one out of
four victims of SBS dies.
SBS is being more vigorously prosecuted and you may
have read news articles or seen stories on your local
TV station's newscast about it, however, the full
effects of shaking a baby is not known
generally. Because awareness is key to
prevention a number of excellent web resources are out
there where people can learn about Shaken Baby
Syndrome, its causes, its effects and injury as well
as programs for prevention.
For August 2008 Website of the Month, presents
three sites where you can go to find out more.
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
www.dontshake.org
The
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
(NCSBS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located
in Ogden Utah, and on its website it notes that it is
"the only
worldwide organization," that is dedicated solely to the
prevention of this form of child abuse. They began
offering SBS prevention programs in 1990.
The
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
offers information about SBS through articles on its
website. They offer a unique prevention program
entitled: The Period of Purple Crying® which,
according to their website "approaches SBS
prevention by helping parents and caregivers
understand the frustrating features of crying in
normal infants that can lead to shaking or
abuse." The Period of Purple Crying®
is a module using a booklet and DVD which is given to
new parents by hospitals of agencies to help make
parents aware of the nature of a baby's crying in an
effort to give new parents the knowledge and tools
they need to deal with crying and to prevent SBS from occurring.
In conjunction with The Period of Purple Crying®,
The
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
also offers online educational training for
professionals about the program as well as educational
training about SBS.
There is a lot of information to be gleaned from The
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
website including an excellent section on medical
facts.
You can purchase The
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
educational materials as well as make a donation on
their website. The organization is also the
sponsor of the annual North American Conference on
Shaken Baby Syndrome.
The Children of Shaken Baby Syndrome
http://www.children-of-sbs.com/SBShome.html
The
Children of Shaken Baby Syndrome can be an
emotionally difficult site to view given the nature of
many of the true stories contained on its pages, however, this site allows visitors
to understand the realities of SBS from the
writings of parents as well as an adult SBS survivor.
Parents tell the stories of their children who have
survived being shaken, along with those children who
did not. Of the personal stories posted on the
site many contain links to larger family-created
websites for theses SBS children where you can read more in-depth
accounts, view images and link to more sites about SBS
children.
Sadly, many of the children did not survive, but
others did. What the survivors all have in
common are multiple disabilities, cognitive
impairments, developmental delays, and the need for
lifelong supports. The other common thread
among SBS children are supportive and loving families.
As we have pointed out in previous Website of the Month
articles, there is a lot that can be gained from reading
the stories of people who have gone through a
difficult experience such as acquiring a disability or
being a caregiver. As heartbreaking as some of
the individual stories are there is a lot of wisdom
to be had from The
Children of Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Shaken Baby Prevention
http://www.sbsprevention.com
In
1992 eight week old Ryan Sanders was shaken by his day
care provider causing a traumatic brain injury and
severe, lifelong disabilities. in 2005 Ryan's
mother Catherine Sanders founded Shaken
Baby Prevention, Inc.,
in her son Ryan’s honor, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located
in Manassas, VA.
The mission of Shaken
Baby Prevention, Inc.,
is to provide prevention, education, awareness and
education about SBS as well as to fulfill the need of
all special needs children in the Virginia, Maryland
and Washington DC region. Shaken
Baby Prevention, Inc.
has also mounted regional and national awareness
campaigns to educate the public of this severe form of
child abuse as well as prevention. These campaigns
include a series of billboards in a number of states
with the theme: Shaking a Baby Shatters Lives.
There is also a similar campaign for Northwest
Washington, DC and Northern Virginia
with panel advertising on the backs and sides of
local buses and the placing of awareness ads in the
laminated tabletops of a regional restaurant chain in
Virginia.
Shaken
Baby Prevention, Inc.,
also provides durable medical equipment, therapeutic
horseback riding scholarships, music therapy and more
to boys and girls 22 years of age and under in the
Washington Metropolitan Area.
What is unique about Shaken
Baby Prevention, Inc.,
is how they have identified the social isolation of
SBS parents and survivors and how they have included
non-SBS special needs children in their
programs. It seems like a natural link to make
since special needs and SBS children share common
characteristics as well as parents who can find mutual
support from both groups.
Like some of the personal SBS pages we have viewed,
Catherine Sanders presents a frank picture of her own
experience and that of her son Ryan which is helpful
for parents who have gone through a similar experience
and are at the beginning of their own personal
journey. You can learn a lot at the Shaken
Baby Prevention, Inc.,
website.
When you visit Shaken
Baby Prevention, Inc.,
you can also make a donation to help continue the work
of prevention and support that they do. Many
times we have seen families start organizations and
websites to provide awareness and assistance - Ms.
Sanders has done just that and provided valuable resources
for other parents and survivors.
Please take the time to visit
our featured sites about Shaken Baby Syndrome, they
are our websites of the month for August 2008 and they are just
a click away; don’t forget to bookmark them so you can
visit again.
Disclaimer:
Reference in this web site to any specific
organizations, commercial products, process, service,
manufacturer, or company does not constitute its
endorsement or recommendation by Northeast Center for
Special Care.
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