What is shaken baby syndrome and how to avoid it?

MD and Professor of Pediatrics, Tamiko Jordan, discusses the severity of Shaken Baby Syndrome, which is the result of a violent shaking injury.
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What is shaken baby syndrome and how to avoid it?

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- Shaken Baby Syndrome is the result of a violent shaking injury. This is not bouncing the baby on your knee or tossing them into the air to play with them, or even falls from a short distance. It's the result of a violent shaking, usually babies grabbed by the trunk or the shoulders, and shaken back and forth very violently. Usually, a caregiver or a parent can do this out of frustration, because the baby is crying so hard, they can't think of any other way to make them stop crying. The terrible thing about Shaken Baby is that it can cause horrible brain damage. It usually results in tearing of blood vessels, of the brain tissue. Minor symptoms could be tremors, irritability, vomiting. Severe symptoms would be more like seizures, coma, and even death. One out of every five babies that suffer from Shaken Baby Syndrome will die within the first few days after the injury. The most terrible thing about Shaken Baby Syndrome is that it's totally preventable. Parents should be counseled, any caregiver should be counseled that shaking is never an option to make a baby calm down or stop crying. Doctors should talk to parents about postpartum depression, or trouble coping with the baby when they're crying, and ways they can deal with the baby, maybe take breaks, take a walk around the block, anything to clear their mind if they feel themselves getting angry and have any urge to shake the baby to make them stop crying.

ALL PARENTS

MD and Professor of Pediatrics, Tamiko Jordan, discusses the severity of Shaken Baby Syndrome, which is the result of a violent shaking injury.

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Expert Bio

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Tamiko Jordan, MD

General Pediatrician, Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Dr. Jordan was born in Riverside, California and received her medical degree from Saint Louis University School of Medicine.  She completed her pediatric residency at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and has since worked in many different settings.  Currently she is an attending pediatrician at the Altamed General Pediatric Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where she teaches pediatric residents and sees her own patients in private practice.  She has been featured on ABC7 and FOX11 news as well as the Patt Morrison Show on 89.3 KPCC.  Her latest project is the asthma clinic at Altamed, where she can spend more time educating patients and parents about optimizing their asthma care and minimizing ER visits and lost school days.  

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