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This is due to confusion about the terminology "Shaken Baby Syndrome". On the one hand, it's a violent gesture causing neurological damage in babies. On the oth
by rossant 2y ago
This is due to confusion about the terminology "Shaken Baby Syndrome".
On the one hand, it's a violent gesture causing neurological damage in babies.
On the other hand, it's a medical hypothesis according to which, as you say, "every baby with head trauma/brain swelling/subdural hematomas must have been the result of frustrated parents/caregivers who shook the baby".
The existence of the gesture and its nefarious nature are not under question. The medical hypothesis is.
Norman Guthkelch, who first hypothesized a causal link between shaking and this particular set of medical findings, later recommended to move away from this term and to use "retino-dural hemorrhage of infancy" instead. This latter term refers to this set of findings without presuming we already know what caused it.
Of course, as you say too, we should absolutely continue "warning new parents about the dangers of taking their frustrations out on an incessantly screaming/crying kid".