Do not shake the baby.

Dr. Nguyen Duy Long from Children's Hospital 1 warns of a bad habit that parents are unaware of: even just 5 seconds of shaking can be dangerous for young children.

According to Doctor Long, in other countries, this has been discovered since 1946.subarachnoid hemorrhageat oneinfant due to being shakenMany children are born normal, but later develop brain damage for unknown reasons. Around the 1970s and 1980s, scientists clearly described brain damage caused by violent shaking in infants or young children, known as Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS). Since 2001, SBS centers in Europe and the US have reported that out of 903,000 children with SBS, 1,300 died and many more suffered from brain damage later in life.

There are many ways babies can be shaken. The most dangerous is shaking a baby while standing because their neck is weak and easily moves back and forth. The next most dangerous is shaking them violently and stopping suddenly, or them colliding with an obstacle, such as a baby running too fast in a walker and hitting a wall. Many people also cuddle babies by bouncing them up and down quickly or lifting them high in the air like an airplane.

In children, especially infants, whose heads are large and heavy (accounting for 25% of body weight), the neck is very weak and cannot support the weight of the head. Meanwhile, the skull bones are soft, the meninges are thin, and there is a space between the brain and the skull. Therefore, when shaken, the vibration force is transmitted to the brain and causes brain damage. Depending on the severity of the damage, it can lead to intellectual developmental delay, speech and hearing disorders, epilepsy, orientation disorders, reduced cognitive ability, and impaired vision. Many of these long-lasting injuries are only detected when the child is older.

For babies under 9 months old, shaking them can easily cause injury.

If you notice any unusual signs in a child after a shaking injury, call an ambulance immediately. Do not transport the child in a regular vehicle, do not lift the child abruptly, and do not try to shake the child to revive them. Do not feed or breastfeed the child. If the child stops breathing, perform artificial respiration. If the child has a neck injury, avoid turning them. If the child is vomiting and has no neck injury, gently turn their head to one side to prevent choking and respiratory arrest. If there are sequelae, the child must receive physical therapy, rehabilitation, psychotherapy, speech therapy, etc.

According to Tuoi Tre - NT