Shaken baby syndrome: identification and prevention for nurse practitioners

Abstract

Shaken baby syndrome is a less widely recognized form of physical child abuse. It is defined as vigorous manual shaking of an infant who is being held by the extremities or shoulders, leading to whiplash-induced intracranial and intraocular bleeding and no external signs of head trauma; often identifying shaken baby syndrome is difficult because of the lack of obvious external signs. Shaken baby syndrome should be considered in infants with seizures, failure to thrive, vomiting associated with lethargy or drowsiness, respiratory irregularities, coma, or death. With the increased awareness of child abuse, more attention has been focused on morbidity and death caused by the violent shaking of infants. This article describes the clinical findings of shaken baby syndrome, explores the characteristics of families at risk for abuse, and discusses implications for nurse practitioners.