When this happens, tiny blood vessels can tear and bleed inside the baby's brain, causing problems such as: blindness • deafness • fits • learning difficulties • brain damage, or even death.
A stiff neck means your child can't touch the chin to the chest. To test for a stiff neck, lay your child down. Then lift his head until the chin touches the chest. If he fights you, place a toy or coin on the belly.
Babies have weak neck muscles and can't support the weight of their heads. If a baby is forcefully shaken, their fragile brain moves back and forth inside the skull. This causes bruising, swelling and bleeding.
Your baby's head needs a lot of support during their first few months, until their neck muscles get stronger. Gaining the strength to hold their head up is the foundation on which the development of all your baby's other movement is based. It will help them to roll over, sit up, crawl and walk .
You can stop supporting your baby's head once they gain sufficient neck strength (usually around 3 or 4 months); ask your pediatrician if you're unsure. By this point, they're on their way to reaching other important developmental milestones, such as sitting up, rolling over, cruising, and crawling!
It is so vital to support the head and neck of a newborn baby. This is because if you allow the head to loll back for even a relatively short period of time, it cuts of the supply of oxygen through the trachaea so that they can suffocate.
This can tear blood vessels and nerves inside or around the brain, causing bleeding and nerve damage. The brain may hit against the inside of the skull, causing brain bruising and bleeding on the outside of the brain.
It is important to note that Shaken Baby Syndrome does not happen by accident. It is not a result of bouncing a baby in your arms or on your knee. It does not happen by playfully tossing a baby into the air or driving over bumpy roads with a baby in an infant car seat or on the back of a bicycle.
If, by the end of month 3, your baby can't hold her head up, even briefly, or her head is still wobbly, mention it to your pediatrician.
How Does Your Baby Develop the Strength to Hold Her Head Up? When your baby is between 1 and 3 months old, she'll be gradually gaining the strength needed to hold her head up. By around 2 months, while she's lying on her stomach, you might notice she can raise her head for just a few seconds at a time.
By 2 months old, baby head control increases, and baby can hold his or her head at a 45-degree angle. At 3 months, you'll see those adorable mini push-ups as baby rises to a 90-degree angle in preparation for crawling. And by 6 months old, you should see your child have complete control of their head.
The risks of using baby neck floats include death due to drowning and suffocation, strain, and injury to a baby's neck. Babies with special needs such as spina bifida or SMA Type 1 may be at an increased risk for serious injury.
If and when a neck flop happens, rest assured, a serious neck injury resulting from a single, momentary neck flop is unlikely. By far the most common cause of neck injuries in infants is, sadly, from shaken baby syndrome.
Torticollis is a condition that occurs when an infant's neck becomes twisted, causing his or her head to tilt to one side. The twisting in the neck is caused by a shortened sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle. Other terms for torticollis include wry neck or loxia.
A headache that gets worse and does not go away. Slurred speech, weakness, numbness, or decreased coordination. Repeated vomiting or nausea, convulsions or seizures (shaking or twitching). Unusual behavior, increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation.
“The most dangerous place to hit your head is on either side of your head, just above your ears. The skull is thinnest there, and there's an artery that can burst and cause direct bleeding in the brain.”
Don't lift your newborn by or under their arms
If you pick them up by or under their arms, you risk injuring their arms or shoulders. Worse, their head will dangle and could flop around, potentially causing a brain injury. Instead, place one hand behind their head and neck and the other hand under their bottom.
Many parents worry that their baby will be injured if the soft spot is touched or brushed over. The fontanel is covered by a thick, tough membrane which protects the brain. There is absolutely no danger of damaging your baby with normal handling. Don't be afraid to touch, brush over, or wash over the soft spot.
While the cause of SIDS is unknown, many clinicians and researchers believe that SIDS is associated with problems in the ability of the baby to arouse from sleep, to detect low levels of oxygen, or a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood. When babies sleep face down, they may re-breathe exhaled carbon dioxide.
put your baby down as soon as they've been fed and changed. not change your baby unless they need it. not play with your baby.
If your baby doesn't burp after a few minutes, change the baby's position and try burping for another few minutes before feeding again. Always burp your baby when feeding time is over.