4 days ago, a young father was sentenced to 5 years in prison suspended sentence for having “shaken” her baby who is now severely disabled. A few days earlier, another father was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having mortally shaken one of her 2 month old twins. Two cases which are not isolated: each year, 200 children under one year old are victims of shaken baby syndrome.
Children without sequelae are in the minority
Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a form of head trauma inflicted by shaking. The tremors involved are always violent, most often produced by a manual grasp of the baby’s chest.
under the armpits. Sudden decelerations of the head are responsible for sloshing of the brain in the cranial box and the tearing of certain veins that supply the brain.
The consequences are important: various forms of disability or death. “Some sequelae may only appear at a distance by default of learning. But children without sequelae are in the minority” underlines the High Authority for Health which issued recommendationsin 2017.
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