Sleek, glossy and the best possible taste in cell phones? The Apple iPhone might be these things but a game recently approved by Apple for use on the iPhone is none of the above.

The Baby Shaker game depicts black-and-white drawings of babies, and plays a crying sound while challenging the user to shake the phone to shut the baby up. Shaking the motion-sensitive phone draws cartoon-style red Xs over the baby’s eyes.

Baby Shaker was developed by software company Sikalosoft, and described by the company as follows:  “On a plane, on the bus, in a theater. Babies are everywhere you don’t want them to be! They’re always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker, there was nothing you could do about it. See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”

So the game was approved by Apple, put on sale for 99¢ in the iPhone store on Monday, and after a barrage of complaints, withdrawn on Wednesday.

Just about everything has become a subject for humor these days. But this is plain not funny. What was Apple thinking approving this game?

Shaking a baby can have horrific consequences. About one quarter of severely shaken babies die from their injuries and many of the survivors suffer brain damage, blindness, and other debilitating injuries.  About half of all infant fatalities in child abuse cases were shaken to death.

Sikalosoft posted a statement on their website “Yes, the Baby Shaker iPhone app was a bad idea. You should never shake a baby!” with a little information on Shaken Baby Syndrome.

A better place to get information about shaken baby syndrome is the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome. Ironically, April 20-24 is National Shaken Baby Week, designed to raise awareness of the damage shaking a baby can cause.

Hey, maybe  the outrage over this game will actually have a positive result in promoting the work of NCSBS and other child abuse prevention organizations. Let’s hope so.

And I’m still lusting after the iPhone. It will have to wait until I have a spare $199 plus a spare monthly $80 for the plan. This is unlikely. And also until Daycare Baby stops trying to eat any cellphone that comes within range. Daycare Baby will search diaper bags to find cellphones to eat, and tries to climb up my boyfriend’s leg to get his phone out of his pocket – this is before she can walk. See what ingenious creatures our babies become when they aren’t shaken.

I don’t know about you but the day I learned that you can shake a baby to death, I actually lost sleep. I was already in college but it was only then that I fully appreciated how fragile a baby really is.

It is a little surprising though, and unfortunate, how many people are still unaware that shaking a baby can be harmful, and how medical attention is delayed because a baby’s silence is usually mistaken for a blessed relief from his squalling.

Dr. Robert Reece, a clinical professor of Pediatrics at the Tufts University School of Medicine, defines Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) as “a term used to describe the constellation of signs and symptoms resulting from violent shaking or shaking and impacting of the head of an infant or small child. The degree of brain damage depends on the amount and duration of the shaking and the forces involved in impact of the head. Signs and symptoms range on a spectrum of neurological alterations from minor (irritability, lethargy, tremors, vomiting) to major (seizures, coma, stupor, death). These neurological changes are due to destruction of brain cells secondary to trauma, lack of oxygen to the brain cells, and swelling of the brain. Extensive retinal hemorrhages in one or both eyes are found in the vast majority of these cases. The classic triad of subdural hematoma, brain swelling and retinal hemorrhages are accompanied in some, but not all, cases by bruising of the part of the body used as a “handle” for shaking. Fractures of the long bones and/or of the ribs may also be seen in some cases. In many cases, however, there is no external evidence of trauma either to the head or the body.”

SBS is usually a result of frustration by an adult, or an adult-sized person, and is thus often related to abuse. Research shows it to be a leading cause of infant mortality in the United States, with an estimated 1,200 to 1,400 children receiving medical treatment for it yearly. Around 25 percent of these babies die. An estimated 80 percent of the survivors, on the other hand, are left with some form of life-long brain injury, ranging from learning disorders to paralysis and retardation.

SBS has been found to more likely result in death compared with short falls, even accidental ones down stairs or from arms of caregivers.

While SBS could be easily prevented, the frustration that results in a shaken baby is not. Babies, some of them high-need, communicate through their cries, something which an exhausted parent or impatient sitter can consider personal. This is all the more reason for parents to prepare themselves for the coming baby.

Sometimes, knowing what to expect is enough. Sometimes, knowing who can be at the end of the line when you’re at the end of your rope can be your saving grace. Warning family members who do not always know their strength may make them avoid rough play or decide to put the baby down for a while when all means to calm it has failed.

On a related note, one state in the country has decided to take the fight against SBS a step further. Child abuse prevention experts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Injury Prevention Research Center and School of Medicine and Duke University Medical Center will undertake a $7 million statewide shaken baby prevention project. The project aims to significantly reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries that occur when frustrated caregivers shake crying babies as well as educate these caregivers to vent frustrations in healthier ways.

Resources:
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
Medical News Today – Shaken Baby Project