Comments on: Shaken baby tragedy

By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:12:31 +0000

I have two children and my first cried for 8 1/2 months from colic, he cried so much he missed several milestones. I did not have help. But I will say NEVER in a million years did hurting him cross my mind. I think our society is filled with ill people and when they are under stress is when you see their SICKNESS surface. The human race is a mess, it is sad. Students need parenting classes in high school and anything else to help them be productive in our Society. It seems we do everything possible to sabotage people when they become adults. Our prison system is filled with lost causes, and it doesn't make sense how they have full medical care on death row but a law abiding citizen can be denied medicine or surgery if they don't have insurance. It is sad children are hurt by pedophiles and judges let them back on the street again not even caring about the next victim. In the state of New Jersey, Politicians hire their family members to work for them, give them high salaries, free pensions, health insurance, nobody cares the Federal Government lets them steal from the tax payers, break the law.

By: Naomi Sampson/Ft Worth, tx

Naomi Sampson/Ft Worth, tx — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:22:01 +0000

I was one of the lucky ones, my mother was here when my son was born, and consoled me and him when he cried. She taught me about colic, and about giving him gripe water which is a natural remedy to ease the pain. Thankfully he grew out of it in about 3-4 months. There are several natural remedies that are available at any large health food store that is not taught at the classes that are offered on infant care at the hospitals.

By: nickie miller

nickie miller — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:27:55 +0000

Dr. Gupta,
I was disappointed that you did not mention a new prevention program called "The Period of PURPLE crying" in the piece you did about Shaken Baby Syndrome. The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome to which you referred has information about this program. PURPLE is the acronym that describes the characteristics of normal infant crying in the first few months of life than can be so frustrating. It would be a wonderful service and a great opportunity for you to disseminate information about this program through your HOUSE CALL program. If parents and the rest of society understood the normalcy of crying in the first few months of life it would decrease the frustration level and possibly prevent someone from going over that threshold to shaking a baby. Learning about ways of coping with this crying and the importance of walking away and never leaving a child with someone who has a low frustration tolerance are all ways that we as a society can hep prevent this tragedy from occuring.
Thank you for highlighting this public health issue and please consider supplementing it with information about the PURPLE prevention program. It is being adopted in my state of North Carolina and it is hoped to decrease the incidence of SBS by at least 50% in the next 5 years. It's not enough to tell parents about the dangers of shaking. We must approach this problem from a more positive angle and this is one way to do it. You can help. Thanks so much.

By: Randy Moore

Randy Moore — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:08:46 +0000

I have a three month old son and he loves to fall asleep on my legs while I bounce my knees. I am very away of the shaken baby syndrome especially since I have seen several cases while being in the health profession. After watching the clip of the “Shaken baby tragedy”, I starting thinking that I might be doing some damage. Is there a problem with me bouncing my knee while my son lays on my legs and falls asleep?

By: Michael D. Houst

Michael D. Houst — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:54:08 +0000

Sounds to me as if all these people we are sending to jail for killing of injuring babies need to be reevaluated as to whether their "attack" was premeditated or not. Most will come back as they never intended to injure the child, just to get them to quiet down or stop.

They don't really need punishment. They need training and rehabilitation. They sure as heck don't get that in prison.

By: Jessica Santiago

Jessica Santiago — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:46:50 +0000

Well From my experience males do have a supper hard time when it comes to understanding babies. I am a mother of four children all under the age of five and im only 21. i feel if you can not handle the responsibility then get some one who will help. there thousands of people who have relationships and can't have children. i bet that night that child was crying some one who had the wright mind would of figured the baby out. if the mother knew he didn't understand the baby, she should of never left them alone.

By: Praetorian, Fort Myers

Praetorian, Fort Myers — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:13:26 +0000

There is no good reason to shake an infant–ever.
Any adult human who does not have the good common sense to not shake an infant whose nervous system and spinal cord are clearly immature–deserves whatever befalls them. My hope–what befalls them is rapid, severe, and uncompromising.

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:54:17 +0000

When I had children my mother gave me some valuable advice, and I heard her voice in my head many times when I was fed up with the kids. She told me to never try to deal with them in anger, if you are very stressed, tired or angry, seperate yourself from your child, if they're older send them to their room, if they're an infant, put them in their crib. Go sit down and take a deep breath and relax, step outside for a few minutes if they're screaming their heads off. But give yourself time to settle down and let the anger subside, then go to your child and take care of them. This advice helped me get through some tough times.

By: Melissa, Los Angeles

Melissa, Los Angeles — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:48:12 +0000

Oh please – enough of the excuses. I was a difficult baby in that I was one of those who would cry for hours for no reason once I got started. It was so bad that the police were called on my mother twice because the neighbors thought she was abusing me. My father was the only one who worked while my mother took care of me and my brother. I'm sure both were sleep deprived and without any family to help they did not shake me etc. They took me to the doctor and explained the problem so I was prescribed some medication. My father fed it to me once and then told my mom that it might damage my vocal cords later on so they threw it away and just let me scream my head offf until I grew past it. Being a parent is not easy and we laugh about it now that I'm grown. Point is -don't have kids if you don't have patience.

By: Rebecca Stabile

Rebecca Stabile — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:53:36 +0000

My older sister was Jiggled and rolled as a baby, tossed up in the air and caught for her own entertainment, but ended up with crossed eyes. My baby sister was rolled pretty hard by us older kids because it made her laugh, and I dropped her when she was 3 months old. She also ended up with crossed eyes.

We have a huge family, including cousins, siblings, aunts & uncles. Those 2 were the only ones with crossed eyes. Both needed surgical correction.

As an adult, I have become active in volunteering for an ambliopia early intervention program. I have learned that what we do to make the baby laugh is often times too rough. Unfortunately, the kind of person who would shake a baby is not the kind of person who reads Dr. Gupta blogs, so I feel that this information needs to be taken to the streets and not just the internet.