Dr. Harvey Karp’s Child Abuse Prevention Advice

April is National Child Abuse Prevention month. As such, this is the perfect time to hear top pediatrician Dr. Harvey Karp’s input on the topic. He is the creator of the best-selling Happiest Baby on the Block book and DVD. You can also find “Happiest Baby” class locations on his site.

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is the most deadly form of child abuse. It is the #1 cause of death from any type of child abuse. Each year, 1500 babies are severely shaken - ending up in emergency room visits. 25% of those babies die while 66% of the survivors suffer brain damage. What is most shocking (to me anyway) is that these are very young babies - the average age is 4 months! This is only the tip of the iceberg though. It is assumed that more babies are shaken and suffer mild brain damage. They have just never been diagnosed.

Obviously, this is a serious problem. The main trigger for SBS attacks are crying babies. Some parents can’t handle their baby’s cry when they are stressed or exhausted. The crying (which can grate like fingernails on a chalk board to a parent’s nervous system) can literally push the parents over the edge. The combination of crying babies and exhaustion are also top causes for a variety of things including postpartum depression; mothers prematurely giving up breastfeeding; marital discord and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome(SIDS) – to quiet fussy babies, caregivers sometimes put them on their stomachs rather than their backs.

Fortunately, there are great resources, like Dr. Karp’s books, DVDs and classes, to help teach parents how to soothe their crying babies and boost infant sleep. Personally, I found the tips in his books (I bought both the baby and toddler ones when Michael was younger) very helpful. Now, I’ve learned that the DVDs are equally (if not better!) effective tools. In fact, the DVDs are being used in classes for teen parents, women suffering from postpartum depression, on military bases, etc. They are also being used in child abuse prevention programs across the county. In addition to the books and DVDs, there are 3,000+ Certified Happiest Baby Educators (CHBE) who teach the principles. You can find them on The Happiest Baby site. (On a side note, I was especially interested in the classes being taught on the military bases since my brother has been in the military since he was 18. With deployment issues, the young age of the parents and the families being away from their support systems, our military families definitely need this type of education!)

Basically, Dr. Karp teaches parents how to “switch on” their baby’s calming reflex. Parents are taught how to calm their baby’s cries in minutes and how to have their babies sleep an extra 1 to 3 hours (on average) at night. The trick about the calming reflex though is that you must do it exactly right or it won’t work. The 5 S’s covered in the book are: swaddling; side (or stomach), shhh, swinging and sucking. When done incorrectly (i.e. swaddling too lightly), the whole purpose is defeated. That’s why the DVDs are especially helpful visuals.

One thing that I wanted to point out is that it’s essential that men learn these techniques too since 70% of SBS attackers are men. An interesting thing that I learned is that (in studies) crying babies cause a physical stress reaction in both men and women. However, when asked, the women recognize that the crying is driving them crazy while the men don’t. They don’t realize that they are stressed until they snap. That’s the bad news. The good news is that men are better at baby calming then women, because they are more willing to follow specific directions. Once they learn that they can calm the baby down, it makes the men proud of themselves and makes them feel like they want to be with the baby more.

At the end of my time speaking with Dr. Karp, I asked him, “Do these tips work for all babies?” For the most part, the answer is “yes”. However, there is a small percentage (5%) of babies that they won’t help even when the parent is doing the 5 S’s right. Usually, that is because there is a medical problem, so parents should check with their baby’s doctor. (The tips don’t apply when babies are in some type of physical pain!) In any event, I think that The Happiest Baby books, DVDs (and their white noise CD) are valuable additions to the library of every expectant and new mom. In study after study, parents who have used these products feel more prepared (expectant parents) and much better (current parents) at calming their babies’ cries.