Shaken baby syndrome is considered an ailment that comes as a result of a child being abused. This might be by being vigorously shaken, hit by an object or had their head slammed against something. The neck muscles of young children aren’t fully developed and their head is often big when proportionally compared to their body. That’s why it’s cruel if not insane to shake a small baby even when one loses control.

The symptoms of a baby who has been shaken or slammed against something don’t take long to appear if they were severely shaken. It might take a few days to develop in cases where the child wasn’t shaken vigorously. It should be noted that the type of symptoms likely to appear are all reliant on the age of child, number and frequency of abusive incidents and the level of force used when shaking the young child. It’s important to trust your instincts when you notice that something is wrong with your child.

Type of symptoms

The first type of symptom is usually vague or mild depending on the force and severity of the incident. They might include vomiting, sluggishness, poor apatite and irritability. They are symptoms that can be mistaken for a sign of other common ailments such as flu. One might also suspect meningitis that’s if the mentioned symptoms persist or become more consistent and severe. That’s why it’s important to see a doctor whenever your child is sick.

Sever symptoms will witness that child lose consciousness and they might also stop breathing after the incident. Bystanders are requested to commence CPR (cardiovascular pulmonary resuscitation) immediately this happens. A lot of people often panic and put the child to bed with the hope that they’ll wake up after a few hours rest. This puts the child in danger since they may eventually be comatose by the time the person realizes that the child isn’t waking up anytime soon. This might leave that child with complications such as inability to smile, follow movement, swallow, and suck or make sounds. They can even die if they are unable to breath. The end result can either be death of long lasting neurological damage.

Problems associated with shaken baby syndrome

A pediatric eye specialist can be able to identify bleeding in one or both eyes of a child suffering from shaken baby syndrome. Normal indications of abuse will be broken ribs, physical injuries and scars.

The unfortunate thing is that not very many babies recover from such an event. This is mostly because the incident was very severe action wasn’t taken within the required time period. A lot of the children go blind and have mental problems. They won’t have the ability to interact normally with other kids even if they manage to survive the terrible ordeal. They will also develop disabilities such as deafness. Their brain won’t be the same and they might even have problems learning things in school.

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