The chilling figures in the number of children shaken by the pandemic

Scary numbers. In a study conducted by the Necker Hospital in Paris and published in the serious journal Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), theThe number of cases of shaken children skyrocketed in 2021in the midst of a pandemic.

Shaken child syndrome, a tragedy

Shaken baby syndrome is the most severe form from head trauma. It occurs when a baby or toddler is violently shaken by an adult.

75% of these children survive, but with severe neurological sequelae that manifest themselves in intellectual, visual or motor impairments, as well as behavioral, speech or attention disorders, as explained on the website of the Ministry of Health. 1 in 10 children do not survive this act of abuse.

But why can an adult be pushed to commit this terrible act? Often the child’s incessant crying is given as an explanation. As we have explained to you in this article, several hundred children are victims of this syndrome every year, with a peak in incidence between two and four monthsas indicated Science and the future. This roughly corresponds to the period when the baby cries the most.

And during the Covid epidemic in 2021, the number of children shocked Doubled.

The number of shaken children has doubled

The Necker Hospital study, reported by our colleagues from Parisianit refers only to the Île-de-France region and proves it In 2021, 32 cases of shaken children were recordedcompared to 17 in 2020 and 50 between 2017 and 2019. Among the 32 shocked children in 2021, 9 died.

Professor Gilles Orliaguet, head of anesthesia-resuscitation at Necker and co-author of the study, confirmed on the columns of Le Parisien:

Not only were there more cases, but they were more serious. (…) The accumulation of epidemic periods created the conditions for unhappiness. Isolation, family promiscuity, the relaxation of prevention were reasons fostering violence.

Gilles Orliaguet for Le Parisien

If conducted, a nationwide study could show whether the increase in this syndrome was geographically heterogeneous.

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