Tribune Editorial

Shaken baby syndrome. The seemingly innocuous term doesn't begin to describe the horrible damage that can be inflicted by simply shaking an infant so that the baby's head flops back and forth, even a few times.

But the truth is that when an infant is shaken, the brain bangs against the inside of the skull, scrambling tissue, causing bleeding and swelling and possibly crushing the spinal cord. The baby's oversize head, undeveloped muscles and fragile, newly formed brain and blood vessels all combine to make possible damage more extreme than most people can imagine.

Sometimes babies are shaken by abusive caregivers, but more often the shaking happens when a parent or sitter becomes frustrated with a period of constant crying -- something that's normal for infants -- and reacts without thinking or without knowing what harm it can cause.

Tragically, shaken baby syndrome is on the increase, from 16 cases in 2005 to 48 in 2008.