Serenity and Safety for All Families

Do you have a plan to deal with overwhelming stress?

It is entirely normal that every parent or caregiver will experience stress during the early life stages of any infant. Sleepless nights, endless crying, feeding struggles, or a sick child can cause pressure to build quickly, especially when support is lacking or emotions are running high. However, when stress and anger are left unmanaged, they create a harmful state that can lead to dangerous, irreversible actions, like shaking your baby. 

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a severe form of child abuse that occurs when an infant is shaken violently. It causes traumatic brain injuries, bleeding in and around the brain, swelling, and in some cases, death. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, SBS most often occurs as a result of a frustrated caregiver attempting to stop a baby’s crying.

But crying is how babies communicate, it's both normal and expected. The danger doesn’t lie in the crying itself, no baby has ever died from crying, but in how we respond to it.

Stress and anger can become dangerous when they aren’t recognized and managed effectively.

Here’s how it can build:

·   Frustration builds from unmet expectations, exhaustion, or the feeling of helplessness.

·   The caregiver doesn’t take a break or seek help and ultimately neglects their self-care. 

·   Anger and stress escalate, leading to a moment of losing control and lack of judgement. 

·   The baby is shaken, often only for a few seconds, but with tragic consequences. 

Babies are extremely fragile. Their heads are large, neck muscles weak, and their brains are still in development. Only an instant of shaking can rupture blood vessels, cause brain damage, or result in death.

That’s why stress and anger management is so important. By learning to recognize your stress, develop a plan for frustration, and take steps to calm down, any tragic measures can be preventable. By taking a moment to stop, place your baby safely in a crib, and step away, you are not only protecting your baby, but yourself. 

Create a plan for yourself, one that can be the lifeline needed to pull yourself back in before tragic mistakes are made. Developing this plan not only encourages the thought process of dealing with stress in a healthy way, but it allows for more support when you will need it most. 

This plan could include:



·   A list of activities to help soothe a baby that is unable to stop crying.

·   Safe and secure places to put a baby if they are unable to be soothed.

·   Things you can do for yourself to manage your anger or frustration in order to deal with the situation calmly.

·   People you are able to call for help, or just to talk and vent your stress to. 

Remember that it is totally normal to feel overwhelmed, but it is never okay to shake a baby. The Parenting Network is here to walk beside you on your journey through early childhood and help you cultivate a healthy mindset to manage the inevitable stress and frustration of raising an infant. Courses designed for these very topics help to educate the families in our community and prevent tragedy with healthy and effective coping techniques, strategic planning, and powerful sessions with our mentors. You don’t have to be perfect. You just need to pause, breathe, and choose not to harm.