Can the baby be rocked? The correct approach is this

When a baby cries, many adults will hold the baby and rock him/her. This can stop the baby from crying and help the baby fall asleep. However, experts say that this approach must be done with caution and the shaking force should not be too strong, otherwise it may harm the baby's body.

1. Can a baby be held and rocked?

It is best not to shake the baby, which is unscientific. When the baby is crying or has trouble sleeping, some young mothers will hold the baby in their arms or put the baby in a cradle and rock him. The harder the baby cries, the harder the mother will shake the baby until the baby falls asleep. Little do people know that this practice is very harmful to the baby, because the shaking action causes the baby's brain to swing constantly in the skull cavity. The immature brain will collide with the harder skull, causing small blood vessels in the brain to rupture, causing "mild concussion syndrome", concussion and intracranial hemorrhage. In mild cases, epilepsy, mental retardation, and limb paralysis may occur; in severe cases, cerebral edema, brain herniation, and death may occur.

2. Currently, clinical cases mostly occur in infants or young children aged 0-4 years old, but the main victims are infants aged 0-8 months. Because under normal circumstances, the volume and weight of a baby's head account for a much larger proportion of the body than those of an adult. The length of a baby's head accounts for 20% of the body, while that of an adult is about 10%. In addition, the baby's brain development is still not stable, the neck muscles are weak, the ligaments are less elastic, and the cervical vertebrae are not fully ossified, making it difficult for them to withstand large-scale shaking and high-throw shocks. If you keep shaking a baby, or throw the baby up and catch him/her again and again, the brain tissue inside the baby's head will easily collide with the harder skull due to the shaking or high throwing, thus causing brain damage.

3. Since clinical symptoms are closely related to the number and degree of shaking, a severe shaking can cause shaking syndrome. Even if the shaking action is not violent, it can easily cause the baby to develop this symptom if it is performed repeatedly over a long period of time. Babies with shaken syndrome may initially be drowsy, have a poor appetite or be irritable, followed by convulsions or unconsciousness. Convulsions may be occasional or localized, but they may also occur frequently, and in severe cases may even cause coma or death. Sometimes, even if the life is saved, there will be serious neurological sequelae.

4. The baby's neck is soft and fragile, the head is heavy, and the base of the baby's skull is relatively flat, making it difficult to fix the brain and the neck lacks support. If the baby is shaken or turned violently by adults, the blood vessels connecting the surface of the brain to the veins under the skull will also shake, which may cause damage to the brain nerves. In severe cases, the baby's brain, cervical spine, etc. may be damaged, leading to irreparable harm. This is the so-called shaken baby syndrome (SBS).