Shocked child syndrome, the importance of awareness of a mistreatment that causes neurological damage to one in three children and kills one in four

“There Shaken Baby Syndrome (Syndrome of the shocked child) affects infants and very young children, aged between 0 and 2 years. We are therefore talking about lives that can find protection only thanks to the attention and care of adults, as they are without tools to defend themselves. Hence the profound meaning of our work, “he says Donatella Vergari, President Terre des Hommes ItaliaFoundation that since 2017 started the campaign Do not!, together with SIMEUP (Italian Society of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics), ANPAS (National Association Public Assistance) And FIMP (Italian Federation of Pediatric Doctors).

The campaign of awareness and prevention Back this year from 5 to 7 April in 70 Italian cities With Infopoint to inform about risks and how to prevent them. In fact, “the shocking child syndrome is one form of childish abuse often unconscious »underlines Federica Giannotta, Advocacy Manager and Terre des Hommes Italy programs«Which can derive from poor information and total lack of knowledge Of the dramatic consequences that the loss of control, even if only for a few seconds, can have on the newborn. For this reason it can be easily avoided with correct information and training of parents and anyone else who takes care of the child ».

Shaken Baby Syndrome: what is it

The Shaken Baby Syndrome is a serious form of physical abuse mainly intra -family against child generally under 2 years of life (the peak of the incidence of shaking syndrome you have between 2 weeks and 6 months of lifeprecisely the period of maximum intensity of the infant cry), which occurs when the newborn is violently shaken by the caregiver. The trigger is almost always the inconsolable cry of the child. The Shaken Baby Syndrome is the result of a series of serious injuries that have devastating consequences on the victimit is estimated that in one case out of four causes the death or coma of the newborn.

How many cases of children shaken have you observed? Was there an increase in numbers?
“There are no data to be able to say that cases have increased in recent years,” replies the Dr. Claudia Bondone, emergency pediatric director – Regina Margherita Infantile Hospital of the City of Health and Science of Turin. “Instead, awareness has increased, in parents, caregivers and in the same health workers, on the topic and on the consequences that a maneuver like shaking entails”.

In fact, in One in four cases This gesture can cause the coma or the death of the newbornbut many others are the devastating effects that a few seconds of shaking can cause, compromising the future and growth of the child forever: «The consequences, obviously in cases of survival, range from motor disabilities, rather than difficulties of language, vision or hearing problems and behavioral disorders»Underlines Dr. Bondone.

What are the alarm bells?

«In the most serious cases the child can present a brain or oral bleeding – cerebralor Important neurological symptomsI: in these cases the diagnosis is unfortunately easier and obviously it makes use of investigations such as the Tac rather than of the magnetic resonance imaging. In other cases, i signs are more fadedmaybe a child can arrive with a plaintive cryor with frequent vomitingor even the child has lost weight And He can’t eat. Other times it is highlighted by general malaise. In such circumstances, to be able to formulate a diagnosis you have to be very careful andexperience It helps us to get to what is the problem, and therefore to the type of damage ».

What therapies and care?

«The interventions are of different nature. The intervention of the urgent neurosurgeryas well as one taking charge by neuropsychiatrist psychologists to allow one Rehabilitation of the child », explains Dr. Bondone. “There is one Spectrum of damage which corresponds to one spectrum of interventions. We have an outpatient clinic, the clinic Bambiwhich sees the collaboration of various specialists. The path of treated child care is multidisciplinaryso we have pediatricians, pediatric nurses, psychologists, social workers and also legal doctors to try to understand what happened on the basis of What the parents tell us “.

In your opinion, there are family environments or socio -economic conditions that can encourage this type of mistreatment, or is it a transversal phenomenon relating to the modern solitude of the parents?
«They are present both situations: the cases tell us that both at Italian and international level, one of the risk factors is precisely the fragility of the family unittherefore young parents left alone, but at the same time there are parents with social problemsor others can insist on the family voltage factorslike unemployment or stories of dependencies or problems of this kind. However, we must not think that these mistreatment of the child are only the prerogative of families in difficulty, because we would make an evaluation error. Of course, at the basis of the shaking phenomenon there is a feeling of inadequacyOf impotence and therefore of frustration in front of the cry prolonged of the child ».

For the occasion, on the evening of April 6, the Pirelli skyscraper to Milanthe Mole Antonelliana in Turin and theInstitute of the Innocenti of Florence They will be illuminated with the colors and the campaign symbol.