Younger infants are more physically susceptible to shaken baby syndrome

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-11-26 11:01

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Babies subjected to violent shaking are more likely to develop a brain injury when they are younger and smaller, according to international researchers who tested the physics using dummies simulating a 6-week-old baby and a 1-year-old. The researchers say about 14–41 in every 100,000 babies are diagnosed with an injury from being shaken, with diagnoses and deaths highest in the first few months of life. They say the exact physical mechanisms behind these injuries remain unknown, making it harder to prove a parent's innocence or guilt in court. Comparing the physics of shaking the two dummies, the researchers say the 6-week dummy moved in a way that made it likely more susceptible to injury, and it's likely an adult is physically capable of shaking a smaller baby more violently.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Comparing the kinematics related to inflicted head injury between violent shaking of a 6-week-old and a 1-year-old infant surrogate

Royal Society Open Science

Shaking trauma is a leading cause of inflicted head injury in infants. The aim of this study was to compare the kinematics of inflicted head injury by shaking trauma (IHI-ST) in a smaller versus a larger infant dummy. We found higher head and torso accelerations in the smaller dummy. Higher peak head angular accelerations coincided with smaller radii of rotation in the smaller dummy. Since literature suggests that head angular acceleration is an important mechanism in inducing injuries associated with IHI-ST, this study's results show that shaking a smaller/younger infant is more likely to cause kinematics possibly responsible for IHI-ST.

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conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Funder: No funding has been received for this article.

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