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Comment by Fire-Dragon-DoL

2 years ago

Didn't the article state that is actually unlikely it leads to AHT?

I think the article says that shaking a baby will give you lots of different symptoms, including bruises etc. And you can't really get AHT from shaking without also getting bruises etc.

That means if you see 'AHT' without bruises (etc) it was probably not actual shaking.

  • Yeah, it's hard to say for sure what kind of injuries you'll get from violent shaking, as we obviously can't reproduce it on actual babies, and there are so few well-described cases. Studies have been made on animal models, showing a constellation of traumatic injuries, but no clear, obvious, and reproducible pattern so far. Strikingly, the isolated "triad" of subdural and retinal hemorrhage with brain edema hasn't really been reproduced in any animal model so far [1].

    Anyway, we don't need this level of scientific detail and knowledge to say that no one should ever shake a baby. All brutal gestures are obviously harmful and dangerous.

    [1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00381-022-05577-6