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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome celebrates 25 years in Utah.
- The group promotes the Period of PURPLE Crying to prevent shaken baby syndrome.
FARMINGTON — A symbolic ribbon cutting marked the celebration of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome’s 25th anniversary as an organization, based here in Utah.
“I wish that we didn’t have to exist,” board member Emily Bodily explained. “Shaken baby syndrome is 100% preventable. Background shows that there’s no demographics that it doesn’t affect. It is purely done out of anger.”
Bodily saw her life changed through shaken baby syndrome in December 1997, when her son, Elijah Fisher, was shaken and killed by his father. Bodily’s story came to light after she made known in Elijah’s obituary how he died and some local news organizations reached out in response.
“The last thing that I wanted was to explain over and over again, so it was just common sense to me to put how he died,” Bodily said.
Instead, she ended up sharing her story with the world as the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome later produced a documentary entitled Elijah’s Story.
“I think that I was never prepared for something positive to come out of something so negative,” Bodily said. “I am so happy to be able to be fighting against all of this and be able to have that chance to not let Elijah’s voice die and be out there preventing this type of abuse until we can completely diminish it.”
There’s still a lot of work to be done. National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome Executive Director Danielle Velazquez said the organization has been monitoring cases in Utah with publicly available data.
“They have increased substantially over the last few years,” Velazquez explained. “A lot of times it’s fathers, it’s mothers, boyfriends, daycare providers … And every single story is related to frustration with infants.”
The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome’s main messages focus on what it calls the Period of PURPLE Crying, which begins around 2 months. The program is shared with hospitals and other health and childcare providers.
“It’s the only evidence-based shaken baby center prevention program in the world that can actually show a reduction in cases by about 35% of shaking and 30% of infant physical abuse,” Velasquez explained. “Our materials are provided to those new families after the birth of their new baby by those healthcare providers.”
Tips for parents and caregivers
- Try calming a crying baby by swaddling in a blanket or holding baby against your bare skin
- Offer a pacifier, rock gently and sing or talking softly
- If possible, try taking a walk with stroller or going for drive in the car
- If you are getting upset, focus on calming yourself down. Parenting is hard work! It’s OK to ask for help
- Put the baby in a safe place and walk away to calm down. Continue to check on the baby every five to 10 minutes
- Consider calling a friend, relative, neighbor, parent helpline, or your child’s healthcare provider for support
- Call the doctor if you think the child is sick
- Never leave your baby alone with a person who is easily irritated, has a temper, or a history of violence
Source: CDC
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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.