Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) has seen its incidence double in 2021 and its mortality increase tenfold in Ile-de-France, according to a study by the Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) in conjunction with the Necker hospital. and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), published Tuesday August 30 in the journal JAMA Network Open. With the confinement, the closure of schools and nurseries, the scientific, medical and social community had very early expressed concerns about a risk “of explosion” of child abuse.
The research teams analyzed the evolution of SBS in infants in the Paris region during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 period and the 2021 period, compared to the pre-pandemic period (2017 -2019). They identified 99 infants under the age of 12 months with shaken baby syndrome between January 2017 and December 2021 at the Necker-Enfants Malades hospital, the only pediatric neurosurgical emergency center in the Paris region.
“There has been an increase in child trauma” during the confinements, explained Wednesday on franceinfo Thomas Blauwblomme, head of the pediatric neurosurgery department at Necker hospital. The co-author of the study noted that this increase in mortality was due in particular to the fact that “the children arrived later than usual” to the hospital. He also points out “extreme seizures that were much more frequent than usual”.
Of these 99 infants, 87% had ruptured bridge veins, 75% retinal hemorrhages, 32% fractures, 26% status epilepticus, and 13% died. Compared to the pre-pandemic period (2017-2019), the incidence of SBS remained stable in 2020 then doubled in 2021 and its mortality increased ninefold.
For the research teams, the fact that this massive increase in SBS did not occur during the first year of the pandemic when containment measures were maximum, but during its second year, can possibly be explained by an accumulation of the psychosocial distress. Thomas Blauwblomme indicates that “the period of social isolation” experienced during successive confinements has shown “that there was a psychological impact on adults”.
Thomas Blauwblomme also points out that “it is almost never the mother who shakes her child. Often, it is either the companion, the dad, or in the case of custody, the nanny when she is isolated”. He asserts that it is not “never in nursery”.
Faced with this syndrome, the neurosurgeon pleads for greater awareness. “What you have to understand is that the baby’s head is very heavy compared to the rest of his body.explains Thomas Blauwblomme. Compared to adults, the child’s head is very developed and the muscles of the spine are very hypotonic, very weak compared to us.”
For people who take care of babies, he advises in particular “not to shake your child, even if you’re upset, even if he’s crying. You have to calm down, put your child down and go do something else”. “Whatever the circumstances, no inappropriate gesture on an infant”adds Thomas Blauwblomme who pleads for a “nationwide education to say, don’t shake your kid”.