So it's difficult to recognize and without the belief that it can exist it is easy to miss. A baby that comes in with vomiting and irritability is often diagnosed with stomach flu, she says. And often it is indeed the flu. The development of CT and MRI scans has made the diagnosis of SBS easier. But experts believe there needs to be a bigger awareness of SBS and a better understanding by physicians of what tests are needed.
Babies have large, heavy heads and weak, underdeveloped neck muscles.
The whiplash action of shaking causes the brain to ricochet about the skull and the blood vessels connecting the brain to the skull to tear. Consequences include brain damage, seizures, paralysis, blindness and death. In Saskatoon, SBS expert Dr. Anne McKenna has found 20 likely cases of SBS at one hospital alone in the last 10 years. Those numbers could be higher, given today's more sophisticated diagnostic tools and the growing awareness of SBS by doctors. A study from the New England Journal Of Medicine lists perpetrators as fathers first, then boyfriends, female babysitters and mothers.