Shaken-Baby Cases Rose During the Recession by Niki2

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Shaken-Baby Cases Rose During the Recession

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 5, 2010 11:21
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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 8:21 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

There you go, Frem: Frustrated? If they can't take it out on the dog, take it out on the baby!

Quote:

The stressful effects of a faltering economy, skyrocketing unemployment and precarious personal finances can be dire. People take up smoking or use alcohol to cope, they become depressed or suicidal, and they develop stress-related illnesses like heart disease. Now researchers report that the harm may be spreading to children too, when parents' stress leads them to inadvertently injure their children.

Presenting May 1 at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, a team of researchers led by child-abuse expert Dr. Rachel Berger at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh reported a significant increase in cases of shaken-baby syndrome, in which youngsters are shaken violently by an adult, since the start of the current recession.

The rise in shaken-baby cases correlates with the economic downturn associated with the recession. "This is a perfect storm in a bad way, where we have economic stressors that are causing the removal of social-service resources for preventing and addressing child abuse," says Berger. Although she says she was not surprised by the association observed in her study, she calls the sheer rise in recent cases of abusive head injuries in children "striking."
Quote:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1986500,00.html?hpt=Sbi
n#ixzz0mzD48v7U

"I'm just right. Kinda like the sun rising in the east and the world being round...its not a need its just the way it is." The Delusional "Hero", 3/1/10

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 8:55 AM

AGENTROUKA

Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
There you go, Frem: Frustrated? If they can't take it out on the dog, take it out on the baby!

That seems like a somewhat simplistic view.

I doubt most of these people make a conscious choice to "take it out on the baby". An underlying lack of respect for the child as a person is obviously playing a role if they cross the line to endangerment and abuse, but for most people the treshold would still be pretty high before they start shaking their baby, so "frustrated" probably doesn't begin to cover the stress levels involved.

Fromt he same article:

Quote:

But the findings are a stark reminder that any stressful circumstance — family tragedy, natural disaster or financial downturn — may push parents to the limits of their coping abilities.

(....)

Most cases of shaken-baby syndrome and head injuries to young children occur when frustrated parents shake their children in an effort to quiet their crying or stop tantrums. The force of the motion causes the child's brain to shift violently in the skull, crushing blood vessels and damaging still developing tissue. It is a desperate act, one that tends to surface as a knee-jerk response by a stressed parent.

(...)

Berger says the findings also serve to highlight the risks of cutting back on social services provided by cities when economic times get tough; these services can help parents cope with their stress and prevent child abuse from occurring.

(...)

Parents must be mindful that stress, whether personal or societal, can strain their ability to cope, especially with their families. "We as adults need to recognize how stress affects us," says Crawford-Jakubiak, "and make sure that the stresses in our lives don't get dumped onto our children."

Not to deny that there aren'r horrible people who really do smack around their children as a brutal form of stress release, but I don't think that shaken-baby syndrom is the best example of that. It's wrong and inexcusable, but it's a different category.

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 9:14 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

It wasn't intended as an blanket statement. Frem has a special place for the treatment of children in his heart, so it was a snark on my part, nothing more; one more way people don't take the time to think of children as "people". I realize there's more to it than that, it just struck me as sad that the recession should harm babies, as well as everyone else, and I thought Frem might find it interesting. That's all.

I also thought I copied/pasted the bit about cutting back on social services...I must have screwed that up.

"I'm just right. Kinda like the sun rising in the east and the world being round...its not a need its just the way it is." The Delusional "Hero", 3/1/10

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 9:38 AM

AGENTROUKA

The social services thing is mentioned several times in the article, in your quote, too.

You are, of course, right about the "children as people" thing. If this was as ingrained in all parents as it should be, the abuse treshold would be much higher for most parents.

But knowing just how designed by nature to be inescapble a baby's screaming can be, I can't help but feel a great deal of sympathy for parents pushed to the brink. I wouldn't ever excuse what they do, but I can understand why it happens. It's not an act of malice or casual neglect or casual violence. At that point, I think it's less that they see the baby as less than a person but rather a person they are enraged at, enraged to the point where they can no longer register the baby's helplessness. Parenthood can be brutal.

I think education is key there. Parents need to know what to do in such a moment of panic. Walk away, call someone, get distance to the screaming child... I don't know. Just an automatic response they can withdraw from their brain account because it was deposited there when they were not currently deperate.

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 9:54 AM

WULFENSTAR

http://youtu.be/VUnGTXRxGHg

Now now... we all know population control should be left up to those in charge.

No more shaken babies people...

Let the government control who breeds, how they breed, and when they breed.

Because, of course, authority is always right.

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 10:36 AM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:

I doubt most of these people make a conscious choice to "take it out on the baby".

Consciously - I'd wager you are right. Doesn't mean it's not the case though.

It being a desperate act committed by parents at the end of their rope seems entirely consistent with the notion that cases have gone up during a recession.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 11:37 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Actually I had already seen that, decided not to post it cause I didn't think anyone else would care.

And yes, education is the key to breaking the chain, one of the bigger ones, sure.

Cutbacks to social services is a problem, but ain't about the money so much as where you put it, and they have that damn hit-or-miss, all-or-nothing sledgehammer approach too...
Vachss is better at explaining what reforms need be made than I am, and he's more familiar with them, being a lawyer and all.

But as for the money...

How many children could we feed for the price of one of them Tomahawks ?

How many families could we house for the price of a missle cruiser ?

How many orphanages could be build for the price of a nuclear submarine ?

War - what's it good for ?

Not to mention... if the moral and ethical notions of this fail to convince, THIS.

I point out a lot to Wulf that allies trump bullets, right ?

Think about it, you make this country a decent place to live, you step in and help these people instead of waging war worldwide - you wind up with a populace that will stand and deliver to the point where no one with any brains is gonna fuck with us anyways.

You DO know that, in addition to their neutrality, is why Switzerland does ok, right - cause they went and listened to folks like Alice Miller and took the road of a sane society, many of the "nordic" countries did, and their child raising and education practices and effects are 20-50 YEARS ahead of ours, and their societies are that much saner - something I like to point out is WHY they are less violent, not more guns, but more sanity.

We in america, we went the opposite route, and the path we're on... look no further than Somalia, Darfur - the harder you squeeze, the more slips right through your fingers.

Most of ALL, we need to let go of the fucking banana and pull out hand out of the glass jar trap that is the middle east - even a monkey eventually realizes they're NOT gonna get the banana out like that, and are we at least as smart as a monkey ?
Sometimes I wonder.

For what we spend on warfare, on control, trying to impose our will on the entire planet (something that also bleeds over unhealthily on our children) we could easily be the greatest, most techologically and socially advanced nation on the planet, but that would mean the powers that be easing their grip, cause that is the ONLY way it'll ever happen.

OR, conversely, we could just quit listening to them, obeying them, or taking them seriously.

We've GOT the money and resources, we just keep pissing it away on war toys.

Here, let Ben explain it to you.
http://www.truemajority.org/oreos/

Simple, yes ?

-Frem

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 1:25 PM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
But as for the money...

How many children could we feed for the price of one of them Tomahawks ?

How many families could we house for the price of a missle cruiser ?

How many orphanages could be build for the price of a nuclear submarine ?

So when are you going to sell off all the equipment your security outfit uses and feed the poor? Not to mention your personal stash. I mean, things seem calm right now, so you don't need that stuff. How can you defend having it when even one baby in metro Detroit is hungry?

Fremd. Consider how ill-equipped the U.S. was at the beginnings of WWI and WWII. Even for Korea. Today events develop much faster, yet at the same time development and manufacture of weapons systems takes much longer. If the balloon goes up from some source we don't even expect yet, having to re-arm from zero is a prescription for losing.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 1:36 PM

BYTEMITE

Ad hominem tu quoque. The fat gym teacher is not wrong if he tells his students they should watch their health and get in shape.

And I don't think Frem ever was talking about disarming completely, rather about cutting out the more expensive toys, maybe the military entire, and leaving defense in the hands of the gun toting second amendment loving people of this country.

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 3:18 PM

FREMDFIRMA

And how many of those battles were fought on american soil ?

Maybe if we stopped this insane adventurism we wouldn't NEED so much of this shit, would we now ?

And the few we did keep would be ready at hand for domestic issues - you have any *idea* how much help a carrier in the gulf would have been during Katrina ?

Oh, and just for the record, since you wanna play ad-hominem in a very fucking insulting kind of way...

You wanna tally help delivered - consider what the actual dollar COST of trying to treat the messed up folks we deal with, if you tried to do it via the conventional medical/psych establishment, which mostly you couldn't, but even if you could, the pure dollar cost of that would be six figures a pop, and you bloody well know it - and if you wanna put dollar values on human life, well, it'd go up from there, wouldn't it now ?

So don't go busting *my* chops while insinuating I don't do enough, not to someone who's devoted much of a lifetime to it, who struggles daily with the hard cold truth that one man cannot undo or even hardly mitigate the ignorance, the arrogance, the malice, of an entire society gone mad - and still tries nonetheless.

I may be pretty damned far from a saint, but I *do* help people, by choice, even when I have little - hell, right now I am suckin Ramen for the next week, prettymuch, cause I cut out a chunk of my own budget to pay the utility bills of one of my guys who's wife just recently popped our their kid, on top of contributing to the baby shower we ambushed him with, so don't dare whinge to me that I don't do enough, while the damn mil-industry complex engorges itself and our nation starves for resources for our people.

I choose LIFE.

If you choose death, then let that be your choice, don't go inflicting it on me along with your assumptions.

-Frem

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 4:19 PM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

And how many of those battles were fought on american soil ?

True, we could have stayed out of WWI or WWII or the Cold War until troops landed on U.S. soil. How do you think that would have turned out?

Quote:
And the few we did keep would be ready at hand for domestic issues - you have any *idea* how much help a carrier in the gulf would have been during Katrina ?

You could ask the crew of the Harry S. Truman, which did provide support after Katrina, along with the USNS Comfort. The Carl Vinson and Comfort also aided in relief in Haiti. Probably saved lots of lives.

Quote:
So don't go busting *my* chops...

Sorry, but when you play the "If it saves one life..." bullshit card, I'll bust away.

For example:

"If gun control saves one life, we should confiscate them all."

"If banning fatty foods saves one life..."

Get the idea?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 4:47 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
True, we could have stayed out of WWI or WWII or the Cold War until troops landed on U.S. soil. How do you think that would have turned out?

Complete fucking disaster for the other guys.

Who weren't stupid enough to invade us anyways, and you know it, you're just shovelling shit now, you know enough history to be very well aware of all that.

That whole fight them over there... bullshit is as stupid, logically impossible, and asinine as the whole southest asia dominos theory, just more bullshit and excuses to keep the money flowing.

See Also: War is a racket - Smedley Butler.

And don't play like this is an all or nothing thing, we could reduce our massive arsenal by a quarter and not even make a dent in anything by the MIC's pocketbook, and speakin of southeast asia, our technological and logistic superiority didn't matter very bloody much in vietnam did it now ?

Sure hell ain't doin us a lotta good in the middle east right now either.

*IF* some dipshit WAS even logistically capable of launching an invasion that was anything more than laughable, they would be cut to pieces before they reached the nearest walmart.

Shit, tell the cops they're protestors, let em get their rocks off on someone else for once.

Seriously, american military policy reminds me of some nutwad in a bunker with more weapons stockpiled than food, scared of the slightest noise and as apt to shoot friendlies - who then realizes someone blocked his air vents...

Pathetic.

The only thing that gives the bad actors of this world any power is fear, and you dumbasses just keep feeding and feeding them, which makes you an accomplice, the way I see it.

I ain't afraid of em, and if they wanna come try some shit here, they'll get a lesson in why - do you REALLY think any country on this planet other than China is even logistically CAPABLE of a full scale invasion ?

Or STUPID enough to try, when all they need to do is poke us a little and we do ten times the damage to ourselves jumping around screaming and whooping like some brain damaged ape on crystal meth ?

So don't play games with me - not when you know I am very well aware that you are being deliberately facetious for reasons you have yet to explain, that booga-booga shit don't work on me, not from them, not from you, not from anyone.

-Frem

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 5:04 PM

DREAMTROVE

Frem,

Cleaning up the mess *always* costs more than preventing the problem in the first place. Have you ever considered that perhaps they *want* it to cost more? jes sayin...

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010 5:45 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Boy, this went a long way off topic real fast!

Geezer, I disagree...I think until someone has put themselves out to help ANYONE else, especially children or animals (in my book), nobody has the right to come down on them. That's absurd. Frem has saved more kids than the rest of us put together; those kids will grow up to help decide the course of our world. That COUNTS. Big, BIG time!

Of COURSE our military is out of bounds, and there are tons of things we could do without that are only made to keep people rich.

As I recall, we were pathetically unprepared for WWII, and got it together pretty damned fast--not that we should get rid of everything, but I gotta believe you know perfectly well that there are tons of boondoggles we could do without, if we just kept our noses out of places we didn't belong.

In my opinion, Frem's right; you're wrong; and you're doubly wrong to take the swipes you did. Anyone who doesn't know our government over-spends on military HAPPILY while grudging every bloody penny that might actually improve this country and its people is living in a fairy land.

But back to babies, I agree Frem; CPS's "hit and miss" tactics, as you say, are abominable. I have a friend with seven children (by five different fathers--all but one having been husbands who abused her, and yes, she DID practice birth control, she happens to be frighteningly fertile and some of it was essentially rape) who's dealt with them. Because she was on her own with that many kids--all the bastards dumped her or she moved to get away from them--CPS harrassed her horribly, tho' she's a great mom and struggled to survive. I used to call her "Mua'dib", because tho' she thought of herself as a "mouse", she was actually very strong, as she found out a few years ago. She finally found a guy worthy of her, thank gawd, and moved out West, so her life has improved. But I went through each incidence as it happened to her, and it was horrific (this was Middle America ignorant-land, and she's an abuse survivor, which is why she kept picking assholes, by the way).

So yes, there's alot more needed than just money--OR money and education--to keep these babies safe. I agree about Scandinavian countries, too...look how seldom they're in the news, world or our national, for violence.

Are we smarter than mice? I tend to doubt it--I don't know if mentality CAN be changed, but if it can, it would take at least decades, maybe hundreds of years of concentrated work. Who's gonna do that for us?

"I'm just right. Kinda like the sun rising in the east and the world being round...its not a need its just the way it is." The Delusional "Hero", 3/1/10

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010 11:17 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Niki - it took the Swiss less than FIVE, to turn it around, once Alice Miller and others made it clear to them, and they were in something of a slide at the time.

All it really would take is an acknowledgement and support by enough public figures, but by nature, folks who obtain wealth and power in our society are sociopaths, and the only way to bend THEM is to appeal to their self-interest, which is tricky.

And we GOT the money, I love that Oreo Cookie vid, it really does make it dead-bang simple, clear as day - although it's not *just* money, it's how and where we use it too, if my nieces school had spent it on education instead of "security" they wouldn't have the problems they have - a kinda twisted microcosm of how defense spending encourages the if-all-you-have-is-a-hammer attitude on a local scale.

Fekkin dimwits, what's it say about education in this country that it's run by people too stupid to connect cause and effect ?

-F

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010 11:21 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Ahh, but Switzerland is a small country--look at us, with all our differing societies and our population! I don't think it's that easy--I also don't know if our history is such that it wouldn't make it harder to change the mentality.

Plus I agree with you about public figures...

As to the quandry about education; when you find out, please let me know!

"I'm just right. Kinda like the sun rising in the east and the world being round...its not a need its just the way it is." The Delusional "Hero", 3/1/10

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